


Two of Hearts

by Troper_Nyaru



Series: Two of Hearts [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Challenging one's preconceptions, F/M, First-Person observations, First-Person snark, Gen, Makes use of Final Fantasy VII canon, bodily possession, gender-swap of sorts, minor gender disphoria, not a songfic, not quite a game anymore, occasional singing, stranger in a familiar land
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2018-11-22 20:06:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 80,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11387469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Troper_Nyaru/pseuds/Troper_Nyaru
Summary: It was just supposed to be a last run; completing the game so that she could know for herself just what could really be done. Something, however, had other ideas, and now Sarah needs to find a  way home, as well as protecting the new friends she seems to be making on the way.





	1. 100 Percent Completion

**_Disclaimer:_** _Kingdom Hearts, Disney, and the other properties mentioned in this story do not belong to me. Neither do the songs within this story, though I do rather enjoy them. Sarah and Kuromaru, however,_ do _belong to me. For those of you who’ve read “Go ask Alice”, this_ is _that same Sarah Williams; the original model, you might say._

** Two of Hearts **

 

Settling down in her gaming chair, a pack of beef jerky, two Slim Jims, and a three-pack of juice boxes filled with fruit punch at hand on the TV tray she kept by her chair for times like this, Sarah Willams was prepared to go for broke. She’d already completed the game quite a few times before, so there was really no pressing need for her to go at it all over again, but now she was aiming for the difficult task of "%100 completion". So now here she was, about to begin a marathon session of Kingdom Hearts for the umpteenth time.

Popping open one of the juice boxes, she took a healthy swallow and palmed the TV remote.

Pressing the ‘power’ button, she glanced briefly at the blue screen of a non-cable TV, before leaning forward and hitting the ‘power’ button on her PS2. She was expecting a lot of things, the Sony logo, the indicator light turning from red to green; anything but for a bright flare of light – blinding in its magnesium-like intensity – to come blasting seemingly out of the console itself, and engulf her before she could do more than yelp in startled surprise. There was a sharp snapping sensation, as if some cosmic rubber band had been pulled to its limits and then released.

Reminding herself to blink, Sarah tried to clear the stars from her eyes. They didn’t seem like the normal I’ve-just-been-freakin-blinded-by-a-flashbulb-on-steroids stars; in fact, they almost seemed to be… moving. It kind of looked like that warp effect they used on Star Trek, really.

She didn’t have much time to think about that, before she was roughly slammed into something that felt a hell of a lot harder than the recliner she’d been sitting in.

"Ow," she groaned, reaching back to massage a sore spot on the back of her head. "Seriously, ow."

Noticing that her surroundings were astonishingly dark for a room that was equipped with three halogen lamps _and_ an overhead light, Sarah opened her eyes. And stared up at a sky that filled with more stars than she had seen since the last time her aunt Milly had invited the rest of the family to stay up at her cabin in the Sierra Nevadas.

"Well, I guess I can safely rule out a power-failure," she said glibly, trying to find some humor in the situation so she wouldn’t start freaking out; something else was starting to bug her now, though. "The hell is wrong with my voice?" she demanded, standing up and glaring at the star-filled sky. "I sound like," she paused suddenly, looking down her shirt; having finally noticed the complete absence of two particular things. "-like a pre-pubescent boy," she finished numbly, sitting down more quickly than she’d stood up.

Idly running her hand back and forth over the surface she’d found herself sitting on, the surface that didn’t much feel like the carpet in her gaming room, now that she thought about it, she tried to make at least _some_ sense of her new situation.

"Sand?" she picked up a fistful, blinking as it ran out between her fingers.

"Sora?" a woman’s voice, one she almost thought she should have recognized from somewhere, started calling out then. "Sora, where are you? Honey, it’s time to go to bed!"

Turning to look back over her – she was trying to avoid the issue of what kind of body she was actually _in_ , and she didn’t want to start confusing herself with pronouns on top of all that – Sarah watched as an older woman came out onto what she was slowly starting to realize was some sort of a beach. _Wait, a beach? And, since I really doubt I could somehow black out walking all this way – not being drunk and all – and since the closest beach is-_ Blinking like a stunned horse, she said nothing as the woman who’d voice she vaguely recognized took her by the wrist and started leading her away.

The only conclusion she could come to, given all the evidence that was being presented to her, was far-fetched to the point of complete insanity. _So,_ this _is what going mad feels like,_ she mused. She was trying not to take in the familiar – now that she knew what to look for, at least – sights all around her. Some things were just too much for one mind to take in all at it once.

The lack of light at this late – or possibly early – hour helped a lot in that respect, and she was grateful for it.

It really wouldn’t do to have her mind completely shut down from weirdness overload, even though it was pretty well on its way to doing just that. Finding herself standing in front of a cozy-looking little one-story house, Sarah let the woman pull her inside. She didn’t know just what the expression on her face looked like, but whatever it was, it was enough to get the woman to lead her to a room at the far end of the house without making any attempts at conversation. Sarah was grateful for small favors at first, but when the woman started to tuck her in, she had to quickly repress a shudder.

Part of it was the fact that she hadn’t been tucked into bed since she was ten – seven years ago – but it was mostly the fact that a complete and total stranger was the one doing it that made her twitchy.

She still clung to the vague hope that all of this could be some kind of elaborate, multi-sensory hallucination, but somehow she was starting to get the feeling that said hope was in vain. Still laying in bed with her eyes closed, Sarah realized that there was one thing that she absolutely _had_ to take care of before she fell asleep. As a chronic shifter, she always made it a point not to sleep in anything loose, or anything that could end up tangled around her if she moved too much.

The clothes she was in now would probably end up half-strangling her before the night was over; through no fault of their own, of course.

Flipping back the covers, Sarah levered herself out of bed and began taking off the clothes that that woman had given her to wear. When she reached for the waistband of the underwear, though, Sarah paused. There were just some things she was _not_ ready to see before her morning shower. Leaving the underwear in place, Sarah climbed back into the bed and snuggled herself deep into the covers.

_I really hope this is all a dream; it’d be too freaky to deal with otherwise,_ was her last coherent thought before she drifted off, facing the door of a room that wasn’t her own…


	2. Morning Mood

_ Sarah/Sora’s song this chapter: Billy Joel’s "Say Goodbye to Hollywood." _

KH

The next morning Sarah yawned and stretched, bending her spine and curling her toes as she waited for her iPod alarm to go off. When no music was forthcoming, Sarah turned over onto her other side and relaxed. It seemed like it’d be awhile before she had to get up for school, either that or it was a weekend.

Either way, the end result was more sleepy timer for her, so she wasn’t going to complain. Weekends were pretty much made for sleeping till noon, after all. And she had a timer on for KRDK, just in case it was a Saturday, so there were no worries about _that_.

Pulling the covers up over her head, she shifted them until she an opening wide enough to accommodate her face, and then settled back down to have a bit more sleep.

The next thing she felt was the sensation of someone’s hands pressed up against her right flank, shaking her like there was no tomorrow. Grumbling and only half-awake, Sarah moved away from the shaking hands and burrowed deeper under the covers. Unfortunately, that didn’t deter the mystery shaker; if anything it made them more annoyingly persistent. Grumbling semi-coherently, Sarah grabbed the nearest corner of her pillow and walloped the little bastard about where she figured his head would be.

Unfortunately, even _that_ didn’t make said little bastard go away for very long. Still, she did manage to find out at least one thing: he was male; and pretty young if she was hearing right. None of that really mattered, beyond being vaguely interesting, and Sarah swiftly put it out of her mind as she settled back down.

The kid was talking at her again, but Sarah was opting to ignore him until he actually managed to pronounce her name right. She would have done the same for anyone else; she _certainly_ wasn’t going to make any exceptions for some kid that she didn’t even know. Although that _did_ kind of beg the question of just how this kid had ended up in her house at all.

It _was_ possible that she’d fallen asleep at a friend’s house for some reason, which would explain the lack of an iPod alarm, but not the lack of other things; things that included people who knew just how much she _hated_ being shaken awake.

Not to mention people who actually pronounce her name right. Curling back up in the bed – she couldn’t be sure that it was actually _her_ bed anymore, but she knew what it was in a more general sense – Sarah ground her teeth as she felt the kid put his hands back on her flank. Before he could start shaking her again, she pushed the blankets down off of her head.

Opening her eyes just long enough to get a bead on her surroundings, Shara grabbed a fistful of her tormentor’s hair and yanked it hard enough to make him pay attention to what she was about to say.

"Look, bright eyes, it’s a weekend, and I fully intend to sleep until _at least_ noon," she paused for breath, vaguely aware that there was probably something that she should be remembering at this point, but not particularly caring what it was. "Go the hell away."

Burying herself under the covers again, she decided to be charitable and give the little brat a few final words of warning: "You start shaking me again and I’ll clock you, bright eyes."

That said – though something about this whole thing was still kind of bugging her – she settled back into the bed and tried to relax again.

"Sora, you’re going to be late for breakfast if you keep this up," the annoying kid said, sounding like he was struggling not to laugh.

"Would it be too much to ask that you, just once, _get my name right_?" she groused, yawning as she sat up and let the covers spill off her back. "You’re still a syllable off."

Climbing out of the bed, she yawned again and scratched her head a bit. Opening her eyes partway, she got her first look – though not really a good one – at the brat who’d been harassing her.

"Nice hair," she chuckled. "You have a thing for Kadaj, or what? "

"What?"

"Nevermind," she said, with a short, sharp shake of her head. "Just tell me where the bathroom is. I need my morning shower."

"Sora, you’ve never taken a shower in the morning."

"You’re claiming to know me pretty well for a guy who can’t _pronounce my name right_ ," she said, beginning to become annoyed again. "Just tell me where the bathroom is, Kadaj-lite, and spare me the commentary."

"It’s down the hall on the left, just on the other side of the linen closet," he said. "I’m going to want an explanation for this, Sora."

"Just as soon as you start pronouncing my name right, Kadaj-lite."

Leaving the room, and the slightly-annoying-but-fun-to-mess-with boy behind, Sarah made her way down the hall. The first door on the left was too narrow to lead to anything but the linen closet that Kadaj-lite had mentioned, so she passed it right on by. Opening the second door on the left, she found a small but well-appointed bathroom.

Yawning and arching her back as she stretched, she tossed off her underwear after she’d closed the door behind her, then climbed into the shower and turned the hot water up to full. Letting the cold water blast her awake, she climbed back out of the shower.

"Ah, that’s better," she said, sitting down on the toilet while she waited for the water to heat up. "The hell is wrong with my voice?" she wondered aloud, reaching up to rub at her throat.

Her fingers found nothing out of the ordinary, but before she could make a more thorough examination, she noticed the clouds of steam wafting invitingly out of the shower.

Other considerations could wait for later; now was her time.

Climbing into the shower, Sarah sat down next to the hot spray for a few moments, leaning back periodically to let it soak into her hair, before standing so that she could start washing up. She was starting to miss her room, with its special acoustics and purpose-built sound system, since just listening to the splatter of the water could get kinda boring after awhile. Hell, she was starting to miss her personal bathroom; they’d renovated the fuck out of that old house.

It was one of the few times she’d actually _cackled_ while wielding a power tool – of course, that _had_ been a chainsaw, and you were pretty much constitutionally obligated to go just a bit batshit when you handled a chainsaw – _Right, right; washing up_ , she mused, opening her eyes just long enough to grab a bar of soap before closing them again.

She knew her own body well enough that she could do this kind of thing blindfolded; that, and she really didn’t feel like risking soap in her eyes.

"Bobby’s driving through the city tonight, through the lights, in a hot new rental car…" she began, lathering up her hands before she started to wash her arms.


	3. The first ripples

She may not have had access to her purpose-built sound system, but she could still sing. As she lathered, then rinsed, her shoulders – swaying slightly to music only she could hear – she paused for a moment to examine herself. There was something a bit… off about her shoulders.

For one thing, they were narrower than she remembered from yesterday; another thing had to do with the muscles of her arms, which were less developed and _far_ less toned than when she’d showered just yesterday. It was strange, and it was starting to make her edgy. She didn’t like being edgy in the mornings; she took her morning showers for a variety of reasons, but aside from the obvious, the foremost among them was to work herself into a state of relaxed alertness so she could handle the day.

Still, she was awake enough by this point to notice that there was something – or quite a few things – decidedly off about the situation.

The sound of her voice was wrong, her body felt weird, her feet looked different, her hair felt too short; but, is was only when she had started scrubbing her chest that Sarah came to fully appreciate just how utterly FUBAR things had gone. She’d been a 34 C before last night, and today she was almost as flat as an ironing board. Breathing deeply to calm her frazzled, jangling nerves, Sarah looked down at last.

What she saw there sorely tested her fragile calm.

"I could hear you singing right through the door, Sora," Kadaj-lite, who she was just starting to accept was Riku, said as he barged unceremoniously into the bathroom. "I didn’t even know you _could_ sing," he continued, laughing. "What was that song, anyway?"

"Something I picked up on the way here," she muttered, trying to get her thoughts in order and hence not paying too much attention to what she was actually saying.

She was actually _inside_ the first game in the Kingdom Hearts series; only the game had never mentioned food or bathrooms, so this place was more like a fully-realized universe in and of itself. She’d enjoyed watching ‘Sliders’ back when it was on TV, but this was more like ‘Quantum Leap’; she’d only caught a handful of episodes of that particular show before she’d lost interest. She had never imagined she’d be _living_ it one day, otherwise she’d have tried to catch more episodes than she once had.

_ Where’s Al when you need him? _ she mused, with a vaguely sarcastic chuckle.

"What’s so funny, Sora?"

"Nothing," she said, with a sharp shake of her head; she’d all but forgotten about Riku with all of the weirdness.

Which wasn’t that good of an idea, really, since he was part and parcel of the weirdness himself.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked, and it sounded like he was coming closer. "On the way to where?"

"On my way over the cuckoo’s nest, apparently," she muttered, lathering up her hair for the second – and final – time.

She’d long since decided not to confuse herself with pronouns; she was who she was.

"What was that you just said?" Riku asked, and she could see his silhouette clearly enough that she knew he was right outside the shower.

"I’ll talk to you after I finish my shower," she said firmly. "I still have hot water here, and I don’t intend to waste it."

"You’re not going to use up _all_ the hot water, are you, Sora?"

"If you keep blabbing at me, I just might," she shot back.

Riku laughed. "Okay, I get your point, Sora. I’ll see you at breakfast."

"Later, Riku," she said, as the door closed and the minor-secondary-Hero-antagonist-whatever-the-hell-he-was of the Kingdom Hearts series left her alone in the bathroom.

Alone, in the bathroom, with the body of the main protagonist of that selfsame series. A body that she was somehow cohabiting. Well, maybe not, but she _really_ didn’t want to think about what Sora might be doing with _her_ body. Although, knowing him, it would probably just be panicking.

Poor kid.

She started to chuckle. "Well, I guess it could be worse. At least I’m not stuck in _Bioshock_. Or _Silent Hill_ ," she guffawed. "Or _Doom_."

True, there were a lot of worse places to find oneself stuck than in the comparatively tame worlds of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but that didn’t mean that she was content to stay. She’d made a fairly comfortable – if somewhat hectic at times – life for herself back on Earth, and she wasn’t going to give it up just because she was stuck in some weird non-game videogame universe. _I think I just mentally Rickrolled myself,_ she mused, chuckling as the lame joke helped her to fully regain her equilibrium at last.

Deciding that she was as showered as she was ever going to get, Sarah turned off the taps, climbed out of the shower, and started to towel off.

There was still the matter of getting dressed, and of finding a decent non-idiotic outfit to wear, which she suspected was going to be a task-and-a-half. Beyond that, there was the matter of dealing with flesh-and-blood people who up to this point had been nothing more than PS2-rendered sprites. Especially those NPCs who only had a few lines of dialogue in-game, or those whose existence annoyed her to the point where she would have liked nothing more than to track down their programmers and punch them in the face a few times.

_ Speaking of being annoying, _ she thought with a slight grin, tossing Sora’s towel down onto his bed and heading over to the closet to see what kind of outfit she could pull together. Hopefully one that was less stupid-looking than the one Sora had worn in-game, but she wasn’t going to go hoping for any miracles.

Peering into the closet, she saw that there were a few decent sets of clothes in there. She’d be able to get one, maybe even two not-so-stupid outfits out of the bunch. As for the rest of them, though… _Zipper fetish much?_ She thought with a chuckle.

Pulling out some long pants that weren’t colored _too_ gaudily for her taste, Sarah went hunting for a bag to pack them in. If she was going to be dragged all over the back of beyond, hunting Heartless and trying to save the various worlds they were threatening, she sure as hell wasn’t going to go about it completely unprepared the way Sora had. Stuffing the pants and a couple of shirts that she’d managed to find into the bag – after having rolled them up so they didn’t take up so much space – she began dressing in the clothes that she had reserved for her own use.

Pulling up the gray shorts, one of the few pairs that she had found without the excessive zipper issues that the others had, she caught sight of a small book on a desk that had been heretofore concealed by the game’s camera-angles during shots of Sora’s room.

Picking it up and flipping through it, she found that it was completely blank. The little thing was spiral-bound, so it would serve – _could_ serve, rather – fine as either a composition notebook, or as a personal journal. After a short internal debate, Sarah decided to record her own thoughts about this little adventure. Like Jimminy Cricket, only a lot less Disney.

Finally locating a pen – she wasn’t about to get into the logistical headaches that using a pencil would entail – she set pen to paper and began to write.


	4. Journal Entry: 1

_ First observation: Sora is not colorblind, he just dresses like it. _

_ Second observation: there’s a lot more to Sora’s room than the in-game camera angles showed. _

_ Third observation: Riku’s hair actually is silver. Which, trust me, is a hell of a lot weirder to see in the flesh than it is in game-sprite form. _

_ Well, here I am, stuck in the one place I didn’t ever expect to even exist, and now I have to figure out what to do next. I don’t think leaving is really an option; to say nothing of the fact that I’ve seen no evidence of any kind of high-technology, I don’t even know if I could replicate whatever kind of cosmic accident that happened to send me here in the first place. _

_ So, I guess it’s like Socrates – not that Socrates – said: _

_ "Better never begun, but once begun, better finished." _


	5. Plans and preparations

Once she had finished sorting out her initial impressions, Sarah closed the notebook and stuck it in one of the large pockets of the gray pants she was wearing, with the pen clipped to the cover to she could retrieve them both in one fell swoop whenever she felt the urge to record some stray bit of data, or a thought that she might want to examine in more depth later.

 

Running her hands through Sora’s disordered, gravity-defying hair, Sarah chuckled softly. Enough time spent in this kid’s body, and she might even manage to figure out how his hair stayed like that all the time. Putting her hands behind her head, she stretched her back. Bending her spine until she had both heard and - more importantly - _felt_ a series of pops traveling up her spinal column, Sarah breathed out and picked up the towel she’d hung on the back of Sora’s chair.

 

Leaving the room at last, Sarah made a quick stop in the bathroom to hang up the towel - and was profoundly grateful that she didn’t feel the need to do anything _else_ in there - then made her way down the hall toward the front of the house.

 

Since the back was where the bathroom and bedrooms were, it stood to reason that the kitchen - and the dining room, if this house even had one - would be toward the front of the house. Probably adjacent to the living room, the way her own would have been if not for the dining room separating them.

 

Swinging her arms and valiantly resisting the urge to sing more - Sora probably didn’t do that, and Riku was suspicious enough as things stood now - Sarah made her way down the hall, in search of both a good breakfast and a way to unobtrusively study the layout of the house. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, after all. At least, she damn well _hoped_ it was.

 

When she reached the front of the house, she found that it was indeed laid out just the way that she had supposed - or more like hoped - that it would be. The kitchen was on her right-hand side as she came down the hall, which just made things all the more strangely-familiar; all this place needed was a second story and a few more rooms, and it would be like a miniature version of her real house. She was glad it didn’t have either.

 

“Sora,” the average-looking woman; who reminded her of Shizu Onuma, at least what Shizu Onuma _would_ look like if her transformation into the quasi-Zoalord Griselda wasn’t going to end up killing her before she reached even the earliest stages of what could be considered middle age, greeted her with a happy smile and a wave to a seat at the small, round table.

 

Her family’s own table was large and rectangular, another difference that she was pleased to note as she sat down in the indicated chair.

 

“Riku told me that you were taking a shower this morning,” she paused for a moment, clearly gathering her thoughts. “I’ve never known you to be so eager for a shower, Sora. You’ve always told me you liked baths better.”

 

 _Well, there’s something you don’t learn in-game,_ she mused. “Well, I didn’t want to disturb too many people, but I’m not very fond of waking up all sweaty.”

 

“You’ve never told me any of this, Sora,” the woman said, looking relieved and a bit concerned at the same time.

 

Sarah didn’t know her nearly well enough to hazard a guess about why.

 

“Well, I just didn’t want to bother you with something I could take care of myself, that’s all,” she said, hoping that she sounded enough like Sora that his mother wouldn’t suspect anything.

 

“I guess that makes sense,” the woman said, smiling. “Still, I want you to remember to tell me if there’s anything you need help with.”

 

“Don’t worry, Mom,” she said, in spite of the fact that it felt really, _really_ weird to call the woman in front of her that. “I will.”

 

The table was laid out with pancakes, eggs, and two pitchers each of milk and apple juice. Other than the apple juice, it was a lot like a family breakfast at her house; they would have been having orange juice, and there would have been a few more choices, though, so there were still enough differences between this place and her own house that she didn’t feel like she had to constantly struggle with bouts of déjà vu.

 

Riku was sitting at the table with them, and she wondered for a moment just why that was. Then, since she knew that there was no real chance of her ever finding out without blowing her cover and sounding out-of-character for Sora, she decided to forget the whole thing. The story behind it probably wasn’t all that interesting, anyway.

 

Sora’s mom served her and Riku before she took any food for herself, which was just one more difference between here and back home that she took note of. It was a nice way to remind herself that this place wasn’t really her home. The food wasn’t bad, either.

 

Once the meal had been finished, and she had found a way to thank Sora’s mom for her hospitality that didn’t make her sound like anything but the woman’s son, she left to find a quiet place to update her journal.

 

“Hey Sora,” Riku said, coming up from behind and to her right. “Did you forget that we’re meeting up with Kairi to head to the islands today?”

 

“No.” It was the plain truth; she _couldn’t_ very well forget the events that had begun the first Kingdom Hearts game, even if she didn’t know quite how far ahead of them she had arrived. “I was just going to get some sunblock.”

 

“Why sunblock?”

 

“Well, we’re going to be spending a lot of time out on the open sea,” she said, in spite of the fact that she knew full well that she was spouting complete and total bullcrap. It was what Riku knew, so she had to work with that. “And, I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon avoid turning red as a boiled lobster after a few days on the raft.”

 

“Oh,” Riku blinked, and then he chuckled. “That’s a good idea, Sora.”

 

“Thanks,” she said, smiling back. “Who knows,” she continued, getting into the spirit of things a bit. “We might even end up getting a tan out there,” she said, trying to forget for a moment that she knew what was coming.

 

Riku laughed. “I don’t know, Sora. I can’t really picture myself with a tan.”

 

“Hmm,” she said, putting her hand - Sora’s hand, really, but whatever - to her chin in an exaggerated “thinking” pose. “You know, I think you’re right. Someone with your hair-color wouldn’t look very good with a tan.”

 

They both had a good laugh at that pronouncement, and Riku grinned a bit wider.

 

“Don’t take too long getting the sunblock, Sora, or I might just leave for the islands without you.”

 

 _And what a terrible tragedy_ that _would be_ , she almost said. Still, despite all the time she’d spent playing the game and its sequels, she didn’t really know Riku well enough to tease him yet. Besides, in the first game he definitely came off as pretty uptight.

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t take _too_ long, Riku,” she said instead, with a smile. “I just need to ask.” Not her mom; _her_ mom wasn’t here. “Mom where the sunblock is, and I’ll be ready.”

 

She’d almost said that she’d be good to go, but since she’d never heard Sora use anything like that phrase in any of the games she’d played, so she figured that _she_ shouldn’t say those kinds of things in front of anyone who knew Sora. In that respect, she was almost looking forward to meeting up with Donald and Goofy: they didn’t know Sora from Adam, so she could give up the pretense without worrying about being discovered.

 

Still, all of that was for later, and she didn’t really like to think about the implications of actually _wanting_ the world to explode faster; even if it wasn’t her world, people still lived on it. She sure as hell wasn’t going to _tell_ anyone what she was really thinking; it would be completely out of character for Sora, and it wouldn’t exactly make _her_ look like a particularly good person, either.

 

Still, pretending to be a boy that she had never met - someone whose personality she had only gleaned bits and pieces of from in-game cutscenes - could quickly become taking. Sora seemed pretty much your Standard Disney Hero, only with Square Enix hair; she... wasn’t that at all, and acting like it wasn’t going to be easy. For one thing, there was her foreknowledge of in-game events, and on the other there was were complete _lack_ of knowledge of what Sora was like as a person. Couple that with her sarcasm, cynicism, habit of swearing when things got rough, and a few other things she hoped wouldn’t become an issue, Sarah wasn’t particularly looking forward to having to deal with Sora’s friends.

 

Still, her acting skills _were_ pretty good, and she wouldn’t have to maintain the ruse for anyone but Riku and Kairi. _Speaking of which..._ She couldn’t quite manage to suppress her amused smirk; it wasn’t every day that one got the opportunity to mindfuck one of your more powerful - and certainly one of your most annoying - opponents, but Riku was already gone, so the point was probably moot anyway.

 

She _stopped_ being so amused, however, when she felt a familiar sensation in the lower half of “her” body. A particularly unpleasant, familiar sensation.

 

“ _Fuck_ ,” she hissed, lowly enough that it sounded more like a forceful exhalation than a word in and of itself.

 

She’d really been hoping to avoid this for a bit longer, but she supposed that bodily functions waited for no man. Or woman. Or woman-trapped-in-a-man’s-body.

 

Grumbling a few more expletives in the three languages she spoke, Sarah headed back into the bathroom. This would be one hell of an unforgettable experience; no matter _how_ much she tried to block it out. Reaching the bathroom, she let “herself” in and faced the toilet. While she prepared for what “she” was going to have to do, Sarah made it a point not to think too much about it.

 

Things were freaky enough for her as it was.

 

She was relying on procedural memory to get through the undressing part, but once she was down to the... er, bare essentials, she was forced to start paying more attention. Just out of sheer necessity; this wasn’t something that procedural memory could carry her through, it was something she had never done before, something unprecedented in her life. Getting it over with as quickly as “she” could, Sarah went right over to the sink and started vigorously washing her hands. Repeating the process twice more, she let out a brief, heartfelt shudder.

 

 _That_ hadn’t been especially pleasant, but she knew even then that she was going to have to get used to it; it wasn’t like she was being presented with a whole lot of viable alternatives.

 

“Sora?”

 

“I’m in the bathroom, Riku,” she called through the door.

 

“Oh.” She heard footsteps then, so she figured that he was coming closer. “Kairi’s here, and I told her your idea about the sunblock. She thinks it’s great.”

 

“And, I also told him that _I_ would get the sunblock, Sora,” laughed a girl who could only be Kairi. “Since I knew that neither of _you_ two would remember it. Still,” she laughed again. “I guess _you_ do have a good excuse for it. This time, at least,” she concluded, obviously teasing.

 

Heading over to the door, Sarah opened it and stared for a few moments at the girl on the other side. _Ah, so that **is** where we are in the are in the timeline,_ she mused, with some satisfaction; she did so love being right.

 

“What are you looking at, Sora?”

 

Finding Kairi’s face suddenly pressed up very close to her own, Sarah had to clamp down very hard on her first rabbit-punch-to-the-throat impulse.

 

“Hey, Kairi,” “he” said instead, moving a reasonable distance from the other girl.

 

“Done in there already, Sora?” Kairi asked, grinning at her in what was clearly a teasing manner.

 

“Well, I actually still have to wash my hands,” “he” said, still smiling.

 

“Well then, don’t let _me_ distract you,” Kairi replied, making little shooing motions. “Go finish up, while I go get the sunblock.”

 

“Right, Kairi,” “he” said, closing the door on the other girl’s smile, while offering up yet another of her own.

 

Once she was isolated again, Sarah made her way back over to the sink, turned the water on for appearances, then quickly jotted down this new data, along with few speculations she was starting to have, into her journal. It may not have been her best penmanship, but at least she had her thoughts recorded for later.

 


	6. Journal Entry: 2

_Okay, so I know a few more things now: one, this is clearly the first installment of the series; Kairi has short hair, no one’s mentioned King Mickey, and Riku doesn’t seem nearly as tense as he was after the whole “Ansem” fiasco. There’s a chance that this could all be taking place inside Castle Oblivion, but I tend to doubt that._

_For one thing, Castle Oblivion has a much different layout than any of the locations in the first game; that’s the PS2 version, of course. I’m not about to go out and blow who knows how many bucks on a Gameboy Advance just to play one measly game. Another big thing that makes me sure I’m on the real Destiny Islands - God help me, I can’t believe I just wrote that - rather than the ones that Castle Oblivion created is the presence of Kairi, and a Riku that’s not dressed up in “Ansem’s” infamously hilarious hula dancer from hell getup._

_Still, what I’m actually going to be able to do about anything remains to be seen._


	7. Under his skin

_Chapter song: “Kyrie Elision” by Mr. Mister._

 

When she had finished organizing her thoughts, pinning them to paper so that they couldn’t slip away or shape-change on her, Sarah washed her hands for the final time. _At least until I end up having to pee again,_ she mused, with a put-upon sigh and a roll of “her” eyes. Flicking the excess water from her fingers twice, the way she had always done, Sarah grabbed the hand towel and dried them with her usual thoroughness.

 

Opening the door to find Riku still standing on the other side, she gave him the best “Sora smile” that she could muster. “Bathroom’s all yours,” she said.

 

He laughed. “Thanks, Sora. But that wasn’t why I was waiting for you.”

 

Before he could say anything else, though, Kairi came around the corner, saw them both together, and smiled widely.

 

“Good, you’re done,” she said, coming over to grab both “his” right hand and Riku’s left. “I found the sunblock, and I thought, since we’re all going to be spending the day out in the sun, we should put some on now so we don’t get sunburn when we go out there today.” Kairi turned back to look at “him”. “I’m still surprised _you_ thought of this, Sora,” she said to “him” over her shoulder.

 

Sarah gave the other girl an amused, whimsical smile. “Just because I don’t usually plan ahead doesn’t mean I _can’t_ ,” she said, with what she hoped was a convincing tone.

 

Something indefinable passed over Kairi’s face, but it was gone before Sarah could make any sense of it.

 

“I guess you’re right,” Kairi said at last, something Sarah couldn’t define still lingering in her eyes.

 

It was almost as if she was starting to have suspicions, but she was doing her best to suppress them; clearly, Sarah needed to work on her acting. They arrived back in the kitchen then, and Kairi headed over to the table while Riku stopped and pulled out one of the chairs to sit down. After taking a moment to gauge Kairi’s reaction, something she was fairly but not entirely sure that the other girl hadn’t noticed, Sarah settled herself down in a chair right beside the one that Riku was using

 

When Kairi picked up the bottle of sunblock, or suntan lotion or whatever you preferred to call it, she waited and watched as the younger girl slathered on the lotion and rubbed it into her skin; all the while trying not to think of any lines from “Silence of the Lambs”. She hadn’t even _seen_ the movie, but enough of the quotes had reached memetic status on the Internet that she could recite them from memory if she wanted to. Here and now, though, wasn’t the time or the place for that kind of thing. Besides the fact that she hadn’t yet seen evidence of any electronics more complicated than a light bulb, Sarah wasn’t about to do something so blatantly out-of-character for Sora as to start spouting quotes from horror movies that neither of them had seen.

 

When the three of them had finished putting the sunblock on all of the parts of their skin that would be exposed while they were all playing on the beach together – and hopefully not getting into a fight with any psychotic Radam Tekkamen – she mused, with a quickly-smothered smirk, Riku was the first out of his seat.

 

“Well, now that none of us are going to be getting sunburned, let’s get going.” The silver-haired boy shot her a look, and Sarah resisted the urge to either smirk or roll her eyes at him; wasn’t likely to be something Sora would do, and she’d acted unlike Sora enough that she suspected Kairi might have noticed, so she was trying to act as honestly Sora-like as she knew how.

 

She couldn’t really gauge her own effectiveness, however, since that would involve paying more strict attention to Kairi’s reactions, and _that_ was as likely to give her away as anything. So Sarah just tried to stay as aware of her own reactions as she could, matching them as closely to what she knew of Sora’s as was possible. They soon left the house, heading out the back door and down to the beach.

 

It wasn’t the place where she’d first landed on this world, but it _was_ clearly an important place in the grand scheme of things. The three boats bobbing gently in the current made it obvious that this was the first step on their trip to Destiny Islands, and the first step on the long, winding road that would end at the gates of Kingdom Hearts. And, preferably with her finding a way to get back home.

 

“Geeze, Sora, are you singing _again_?”

 

Riku’s sudden, incredulous query startled Sarah back to the present moment, reminding her of just where she was; and who she was pretending to be.

 

“I think it was a nice song,” Kairi said, and turned to face “Sora” more squarely. “Do you think you could sing it again?”

 

“Well...” _Blistering Hellfreid,_ she groused inwardly, gently shoving the unattended middle boat into the surf. _At least it wasn’t J-pop or something like that,_ she mused, hiding a small smile by tilting her head just that much farther down; the other two probably thought she was just looking down at her boat, or rather that “he” was. “All right, Kairi. If you really want me to.”

 

Given the fact that she’d pretty much memorized the song in question, along with a few dozen others and snatches of not-even-she-knew how many more, that wasn’t such a tall order. Calling up the melody in her memory, Sarah allowed herself to smile just a bit. This might not have been something that Sora would do, and yeah there were probably going to be consequences for this little indulgence of hers, but this was something harmless that she enjoyed doing.

 

And, who knew; maybe the consequences wouldn’t be all that bad.

 

“The wind blows hard against this mountainside,” she sang, pushing Sora’s boat out into the surf to launch it. “Across the sea into my soul.”

 

Holding the last note for a moment, Sarah settled herself into the gently-rocking boat, taking a deep breath as she tried to find a comfortable rhythm for rowing. Finding it, she continued: “It reaches in to where I cannot hide, setting my feet upon the road.”

 

This might not have been her native world, and might in fact have been the last place in the ‘verse she had ever expected to end up, but she was here now, so she was going to try to make what differences she could. “My heart is old, it holds my memories; my body burns a gemlike flame.”

 

Sarah wondered for a moment just what was going to happen two or three days hence, when this world that they were all standing on was consumed by some freakish, giant space anomaly, but then she decided not to stress herself out about it. Whatever happened would happen, and worrying about it would only make her more jumpy and prone to overreaction; not a good thing when she was at least _trying_ to maintain a passable cover-story. “Somewhere between the soul and soft machine, is where I find myself again.”

 

It was kind of strange, Sarah reflected; she didn’t know much about rowing aside from what she’d seen on TV, but she seemed to be doing pretty well here and now. Then again, she _was_ in Sora’s body, so it was probably Sora’s muscle-memory at work. “Kyrie Eleison, down the road that I must travel. Kyrie Eleison, through the darkness of the night. Kyrie Eleison, where I’m going will you follow? Kyrie Eleison, on a highway in the night.”

 

Sarah wondered when they were going to reach those small islands that the first game began on; the game itself gave no indication of travel-time to or from their meeting place. _That’s the trouble with games like this,_ she groused, with a mental roll of her eyes. _No one ever thinks about what could happen if it became real._

 

“When I was young, I thought of growing old. Of what my life would mean to me.” Sarah almost had to laugh at herself for that thought: the reason that no one thought about any kind of game becoming real was that it never happened; except, ironically enough, in certain types of RPGs.

 

“Would I have followed down my chosen road, or only wished what I could be?” Sarah wished for a moment that she could ask how long their journey was going to take without the risk of compromising her cover, if not blowing it entirely. Sure “Kyrie Eleison” wasn’t the longest song that she could have chosen to sing, and in fact it was nearly all over but the chorus, but she would have liked to know how much time she had before they all arrived at their intended destination.

 

“Kyrie Eleison, down the road that I must travel. Kyrie Eleison, through the darkness of the night. Kyrie Eleison, where I’m going, will you follow? Kyrie Eleison, down a highway in the night.” As she continued to row, breathing deeply between each stroke so that she could maintain a steady rhythm, Sarah caught her first glimpse of the Destiny Islands. It looked like they were only a few more minutes out. that was good, since she only needed a few more minutes to finish the song, in any case.

 

“Kyrie Eleison, down the road that I must travel. Kyrie Eleison, through the darkness of the night. Kyrie Eleison, where I’m going, will you follow? Kyrie Eleison, down a highway in the night.” She hadn’t heard Kairi singing along during her last repetition of the chorus, or maybe she just hadn’t been paying enough attention to notice that she had, but in any case the two of them were coming to the end of their impromptu duet.

 

The three of them were closing in on the main island, and Sarah thought that she would have just enough time to finish the song before they all reached the shore.

 

“Kyrie Eleison, down the road that I must travel. Kyrie Eleison, through the darkness of the night. Kyrie Eleison, where I’m going, will you follow? Kyrie Eleison, down a highway in the night.”

 

As her and Riku’s boats bumped gently against each other while she continued to guide Sora’s boat up to the dock, Sarah breathed deeply to steady herself. For a few seconds Sarah wondered if she was supposed to lash the boat to something, or tie it up somehow. She’d never seen anything like that in the game itself, but then the boats in the game had been nothing but one more piece of pre-rendered scenery in a game full of the stuff.

 

“I never knew you could sing so well, Sora,” Riku said, as he carefully climbed out of his boat and up onto the dock.

 

“Well, I’m just full of surprises,” she said, concentrating more on getting up and out of Sora’s boat than anything else.

 

This was something that she had never done before, and she didn’t want to screw something up because she hadn’t been paying attention. When she had made it up onto the dock that bordered the water, thankfully _without_ falling in, Sarah took a moment to discreetly take in both her new surroundings and the people around her. Kairi was giving her that unreadable look again; something Sarah didn’t yet have enough personal experience to interpret yet.

 

She was probably going to end up getting just that kind of personal experience before this whole debacle was over with, but for now she was pretty much flying blind.

 

“You’re not just going to _stand_ there all day, are you, Sora?” Kairi asked, once again standing a bit closer than Sarah was really comfortable with.

 

Not that she didn’t like Kairi or anything, since given she’d seen in-game and everything she was seeing now it was pretty obvious that she was the kind of genuinely nice person that Sarah hanging around so much, but having anyone standing so close to her made Sarah feel like she was boxed in; it made her feel like she couldn’t breathe if it went on for too long, though she usually tended to lash out before it got _that_ far. She didn’t know if Sora had the same kind of issues with crowding as she did, but given all the things she had seen him put up with in-game, she was personally inclined to doubt it.

 

“Sorry,” she said, working a cheerful expression for the two of them. “I guess I just got a little lost in thought back there.”

 

“Well, I’m glad you managed to find your way back, then,” Kairi said, with a small but clearly amused smile.

 

From all that she had seen of Kairi in-game, Sarah had formed the impression of someone who was brave, kind, loyal, decent, and gentle. Sure, the cutscenes _had_ hinted that she had least the beginnings of a sense of humor, but Sarah hadn’t really gotten to know the other girl very well; what with the planet exploding and the Heartless attacking and all, but Sarah was starting to understand just why Sora liked her so much.

 

Really, the only people who didn’t seem to like her were the rabid Riku x Sora ‘shippers, and anyone with half a brain knew that rabid ‘shippers of any stripe were hopeless morons in desperate need of a reality-check. Of course, it wasn’t like rabid anti-shippers were any better; really, anyone who took the love-lives of fictional characters so seriously that they were willing to fight about it really needed to look into getting a life.

 

As she followed Kairi and Riku out onto the shore of the largest of the Destiny Islands for the first time, Sarah considered what her first order of business was going to be. She already knew how Sora had done things, and she wasn’t particularly interested in repeating Sora’s actions completely during however long she was going to be stuck here, so Sarah decided that she might as well begin taking some initiative now as later.

 

“Where are _you_ going off to, Sora?”

 

She smiled. “Well, we still need to get the rest of the parts for the raft, don’t we?”

 

“So what, are you trying to tell me that you’ve actually developed a _work ethic_ now?” Riku asked, giving her a sidelong grin.

 

“I know, shocking isn’t it?” she returned with a smirk.

 

Riku looked like someone had just taken a swing at him, or else like he’d face-planted into a wall. It was really pretty funny, but she knew better than to laugh. That wouldn’t be like Sora at all.

 

No one else said anything, and the three of them made their way onto the Destiny Islands. She figured that, since Riku and Kairi already knew what “Sora” was planning to do, she might as well go and do it. Besides, checking her reactions again might make Kairi suspicious, or at least more suspicious than she might already be.

 

Taking a moment to recall just where all of that stuff they had wanted actually was, Sarah let a brief smile cross “her” face when Kairi spoke up.

 

“Remember, Sora: we need two logs, a rope, and some cloth to finish our raft!”

 

“Thanks, Kairi,” she said, with a slightly wider smile.

 

Having remembered at last where the three targets of her now-self-appointed fetch-quest actually _were_ , decided that since she didn’t actually _want_ to be hauling logs all over the place – gameplay mechanics had made this job so much easier – she would go for the lighter and more easily portable objects first. That in mind, she made her way to the ladder that she had used so many times and yet never used at all. It had been a long time since she had played any of the games in the Kingdom Hearts series, and also awhile since she had watched the Hellfire Commentaries playthrough of the first game, but things were starting to come back to her the more time she spent retracing Sora’s in-game steps.

 

Probably just like riding a bike, she figured.

 

Passing around the curved, wooden wall that wrapped around the large rock – really more of a giant boulder, or a small, rocky hill – she continued on her way to the comparatively large wooden platform where she and all of the other gamers had met up with KH!Tidus. briefly, she wondered if Spoony would hate KH!Tidus as much as he hated FF!Tidus; probably not, though, both since you didn’t spend nearly as much time with KH!Tidus as you did with the FF variant, and because you had the opportunity to beat the ever-loving crap out of him pretty much at whim.

 

When she finally made it to the platform, though it was really more like someone’s deck sans the awning now that she thought about it, Sarah found that KH!Tidus was _not_ in fact making those ridiculous swinging motions with that stick he used as a mêlée-weapon. At least, he wasn’t making them constantly, to the point where he resembled a fisherman on crack; she supposed it came of not being an NPC with limited AT anymore.

 

“Hey Sora, you feel lucky today?”

 

 _And yet he’s_ still _as predictable as ever,_ she mused, holding back a smirk through sheer force of will; she’d never known Sora to smirk, so she knew that she couldn’t do it around anyone who knew him. At least, not if she didn’t want to risk freaking them out and possibly blowing her cover. She could probably smirk all she wanted to around Riku, though.

 

“I think I’ll have to get back to you about that,” she said, picking up the coil of rope and settling it over her neck and left shoulder, leaving her right arm with the freedom of movement she was going to need if she was going to get the rest of this fetch-quest done.

 

“Kairi’s putting you to work already, huh?” Tidus asked, laughing.

 

“Yeah, she’s a real slave-driver,” Sarah said, before she could stop herself.

 

Luckily for her, all Tidus did in response to _that_ little quip was to laugh a bit harder. Sarah knew that she really had to break her habit of making those sarcastic little asides, at least while she was on this island with so many people who knew Sora to some greater or lesser degree.

 

Another reason to look forward to meeting Donald and Goofy: she wouldn’t have to live up to anyone else’s preconceived notions. For the moment, however, she would have to watch her reactions a lot more carefully if she was going to make it to the end of the world without being caught out.

 

“See you later, Sora!” Tidus called out, once Sarah had finished getting the rope settled over her shoulder and hence started to move out.

 

“Yeah, later, Tidus,” she called back over her own shoulder with a smile, taking care to pronounce the name the way that KH!Wakka had.

 

She’d always pronounced it ‘tide-us’ rather than ‘teed-us’, but she figured that now wasn’t really the time for changing things like that up; she’d be doing plenty of that once she made it off-world. Since the kid himself didn’t correct her pronunciation, Sarah figured she had gotten it right, so she didn’t break stride as she made her way back down to ground-level. By the time she’d made it to the bottom of the ladder, the rope she was carrying had begun to chafe her neck.

 

Removing it with a soft, relived sigh, she set the still-coiled rope down by the small, artificial pond that sat near the Seaside Shack. _Wonder if I’ll find that Save Point,_ she mused, laughing softly at her own whimsy. Like she was going to walk in there and find a circle of pulsing, rippling green-and-white light, one that was large enough for her to stand in and would heal all her wounds if she did so. Not that she actually _had_ any wounds at the moment, but it was the principle of the thing.

 

However, for the moment, she had more important things to do than look for something that probably wasn’t even there in the first place.

 

Making her way past the coil of rope she’d already lay down, Sarah climbed up the second plank-bridge and make her way over to the short ladder. Climbing _that_ , she made her way over to the comparatively small, hollowed-out space next to the rocky hill; she wondered for a moment just who had built it and what it had been used for, but then she decided to shelve her curiosity since there wasn’t much chance of her getting an answer before the whole world-shattering-kaboom bit, and by then she would have more important things to think about. Besides, it was probably just a clubhouse or something.

 

As she folded up the cloth that had been hanging on the wall to make it easier to carry, Sarah thought fondly of the way that these kinds of things would vanish into her inventory with no more than a simple touch; no doubt about it, game-mechanics had made these annoying fetch-quests a hell of a lot easier.

 

Of course, that meant that carrying all the Hi-Potions and Ethers she was going to want when she made it into Traverse Town and the KH’Verse in general was going to be a bitch and a half.

 

Still, all of those considerations could be addressed later, when she actually had some time to herself. For the moment, she had a fetch-quest to complete, and some sparring to get in if she was going to keep people from becoming suspicious of her. She also had a date to curb-stomp Riku, but business before pleasure; smirking faintly, she set the folded cloth down on top of the rope and turned away to head for the beach. Realizing that she had begun to sing “Treasure Sniper” under her breath, Sarah clicked her teeth together in annoyance and sighed.

 

She really needed to stop doing things that were so out-of-character for Sora; it was bound to get her in trouble sooner or later. She couldn’t afford to let herself get caught up in the moment, or else she was likely to end up giving herself away without meaning to, and perhaps even without noticing at first. Of course, all of those were probably good reasons for her to _avoid_ fighting Riku, since she and Sora not only had wildly divergent fighting-styles, but she tended to get a little over-enthusiastic when she was in the heat of battle. There was a chance that Riku, even as unobservant as he was, would notice something off about “Sora” if they sparred.

 

On the other hand, since it _was_ just going to be a spar as opposed to a real fight, Sarah wouldn’t be using the same kinds of moves that she’d have been breaking out if she’d _honestly_ been trying to beat Riku into submission. So it wasn’t that likely that she would end up hurting him _too_ much. Besides, it wasn’t like Riku took too much notice of what was going on around him; hell, the only thing that was likely to come of her pounding him into submission was that he’d be a little more pissy when Maleficent got her hooks into him, and given the fact that she was going to kick his ass at Hollow Bastion anyway, that probably didn’t matter.

 

With the first of the two logs she needed tucked under her left arm, Sarah made her way back to the growing pile where she had stashed the rest of the materials she had gathered thus far. Dropping the log off with a dull ‘thunk’, Sarah continued on her way past the shack and up to the plank-bridge that connected the relatively dinky main island with the speck-of-a-barely-larger-than-an-MMA-arena island that Riku was standing on. Well, lounging on really, since she’d seen him on that tree during that post-or-during-fetch-quest-cutscene that she had triggered when she’d made her way out to said itty-bitty island in the game. Still, the fact that she had switched up the order of the events that she had gone through before those many times in-game just might mean that she _wouldn’t_ find Riku lounging around on that tree; she remembered game-Riku saying that he had already delivered all the stuff he’d been asked to gather up to game-Kairi, but that was _after_ game-Sora had been caught napping by both the latter and the former.

 

Without that, there was a definite possibility that Riku was still out there gathering whatever miscellaneous items Kairi had sent him out to get. She suspected that one or more of them might have been logs, just like Sora himself had been asked to get. It fit with what she’d seen during the opening cutscene of the game, the one that she had probably thoroughly FUBARed by now.

 

She wondered briefly just what it was that Riku had been asked to get, then decided to shelve her curiosity since she knew that it was never going to be satisfied. True, she could ask, but Riku would probably make fun of “him” for it, and then he wouldn’t tell her anyway. Best not to bring it up in the first place, she decided.

 

The sound of shoes scuffling across sand let Sarah know that she wasn’t alone on the small island, so she glanced over “her” shoulder to see who it was.

 

“Oh, hey Riku,” she said, flashing the silver-haired boy a brief smile before turning back to her work.

 

She’d just spotted the last of the logs that Sora had been sent to fetch, and she wasn’t about to let herself be distracted. Riku’s footsteps paused for a moment, while she continued on her way over to the log that she that she had spotted when she’d first onto this island; or really, when she had first played the game that this island was a part of. Riku’s footsteps started back up when she’d almost gotten to the log, and as she picked the thing up, Sarah turned to look over “her” left shoulder.

 

“You want to talk, Riku?” she asked, taking a shot in the dark, even as she hefted the last log up under that same arm.

 

“How did you know it was me, Sora?” the sliver-haired boy asked, sounding surprised enough that Sarah almost wanted to laugh.

 

That wouldn’t have been very Sora-like, so she restrained herself. Turning around so that she wouldn’t get neck-cramps from trying to have a conversation with someone who was standing behind her, Sarah couldn’t resist the urge to smile, just a bit.

 

“Well, I didn’t think Kairi would be coming over to collect this stuff personally,” she said, still wearing a slight smile. “She seemed kind of busy.”

 

“That wasn’t what I was talking about, Sora,” Riku said, folding his arms and looking more closely at “him”. “How did you know I was coming at all? I didn’t _say_ anything.”

 

Hiding her chuckle by coughing into her fist, Sarah quickly wiped the smile off Sora’s face when Riku peered more closely at “him”.

 

“Well, are you going to tell me, or not?” the boy asked, getting in just a bit closer than Sarah was truly comfortable with.

 

 _First off, get out of my face,_ Sarah didn’t say, moving back slightly, even as she tucked the log more securely under “her” left arm and prepared to move out. “Walk with me a bit, and I’ll show you,” she said, looking back over “her” shoulder at Riku again.

 

“All right,” the boy in question said, though he looked a bit dubious.

 

The two of them made their way off the small island in silence, but that only lasted for the first few steps before Riku decided that he’d had enough.

 

“I don’t get what I’m supposed to be seeing her, Sora,” he said impatiently.

 

“You’re not supposed to be _seeing_ anything, Riku,” she returned easily, as the two of them continued on their way off the small island.

 

“You’re not making any sense,” he said, sounding all the more irritated by what she had just said.

 

 _Well, at least I know he wasn’t just being dense for story-purposes,_ she mused, with a soft sigh. “It’s not something you’re going to figure out just by watching what I do, Riku,” she said, looking back over “her” shoulder at him.

 

“What do you mean by _that_? You’re _still_ not making any sense, Sora!”

 

“Shh,” she said, hushing him with her right hand. “Just listen.”

 

Pacing a circle around Riku, Sarah shifted the log in her grip to relieve some of the strain on her left arm.

 

“You _heard_ me coming?” Riku blinked, staring incredulously down at her feet as Sarah returned to her starting point.

 

She chuckled. “Never disregard input from any of your senses, Riku. It’s always something you _don’t_ notice that gets you.”

 

With that minor bit of hard-earned wisdom imparted, and Riku looking like someone had just slapped him with a wet fish, Sarah made her way across the wood-plank bridge and back onto the main island. Riku followed silently, and as she reviewed her performance from the last few minutes, Sarah cursed herself silently.

 

 _Just couldn’t resist the urge to show off, now could you? Fucking moron; the hell are you going to do if they find you out? Of course, the rate_ you’re _going, it’s not going to be a matter of_ if _so much as a matter of_ when _, now isn’t it?_ Tossing the last log to the ground with a bit more force than was perhaps strictly necessary, Sarah exhaled soundlessly. She really needed to remember to stop doing things that could compromise her cover.

 

No matter how natural she found it to be able to pick out the sound of footsteps approaching her, she had to remember not to chide the person who had been trying to sneak up on her for their absolute lack of anything resembling stealth training. Not everyone had a Dad with friends in Special Forces and the Navy SEALs, after all. She was pretty sure that no one _here_ did, at least.

 

Hell, she didn’t know if anyone here knew what armed forces _were_ , let alone had any of them.

 

A punch to her right shoulder startled Sarah out of her contemplation, and she quickly bent her legs slightly, preparing to dodge the next blow while her hands came up to throw her own punches. Or just to throw her opponent so that she would be able to beat them down more easily.

 

“Geeze, Sora,” Riku said, laughing as his eyes roved to take in her stance. “You’d think you wanted to fight right here and now.” He subsided a bit, but he was still smirking. “Tell you what: you get all of that stuff delivered to Kairi, then come meet me out on the island. And, when I win, you can teach me how to do that trick you just did.” Riku was smirking by the end of his little speech, and even with the fact that her reaction – both of them, really – would have given her away to a more observant person, Sarah still had to bite back the answering smirk that wanted to spread across her own face.

 

This was why she enjoyed dealing with Riku: he was dense enough not to take any notice of the ways she was acting different than Sora.

 

“And what happens if _I_ win?” she asked, cocking her head slightly.

 

Normally, if some arrogant pinhead like Riku so obviously was challenged her to a fight, she’d mock them a bit in her counter-challenge, and then laugh at the look on their face. Then, of course, she would proceed to kick their asses ten ways from next Sunday using her no-holds-barred-everything-is-permitted fighting style.

 

Probably while taunting them, depending on their level of combat experience compared to her.

 

Still, as things stood now, she wasn’t as confident as she usually was. There were two major reasons for that, the first being that Sora’s body didn’t have any of the ingrained muscle-memory or flexibility that she had trained into her own. Sure, she knew from experience that Sora had his own set of muscle-memories, but she didn’t know if any of them related to combat. Really, from what she’d seen in-game, Sora seemed to be more of a brawler than anything; at least, he showed no _evidence_ of formal combat training in the first game.

 

She didn’t quite remember the second or third games well enough to comment on the evolution of Sora’s skills, and she hadn’t played many of the later games, either because they hadn’t come out for the PS2 or PS3 yet, or because she hadn’t gotten to that point in the story yet. In fact, she reflected with a bit of morbid amusement, she hadn’t even finished Riku’s story in the second game.

 

Laughing softly to herself, Sarah hefted the coiled rope and settled it over her neck and left shoulder.  


She’d stopped halfway through Riku’s story in Re: Chain of Memories because she’d been fed up with all of the level-grinding she’d had to do to keep from getting killed by the various bosses in that game. And then Tatsunoko vs. Capcom had come out, followed closely by Kamen Rider Dragon Knight the game. Then, when she had just started to get tired of those games – not an easy prospect when there was a new ending to see for each character in both games – the PS3 system had come out, along with a new library of games. Foremost among them, at least in her mind, had been Assassin’s Creed and not long after that Assassin’s Creed II.

 

In fact, the only reason that she’d started playing the first Kingdom Hearts game again at all was the fact that she had never managed to create Ultima Weapon from her visits to the Moogles’ item workshop.

 

Of course, under the circumstances she could see how it might have been a _good_ thing that she’d loaded up this particular game at this particular time. If she’d ended up falling into Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, _Marvel_ vs. Capcom, either of the Assassin’s Creed games she owned, or even – God forbid – _Prototype_... Well, she’d have a hell of a time getting back out again.

 

With the cloth now safely tucked under Sora’s left arm, Sarah made her way past the old shack that might or might not have a save-point in it, past the bridge on the other side that lead to the islet/arena-where-she-might-or-might-not-kick-Riku’s-ass, and over to the large wooden gate that she had always found Kairi in front of during this particular fetch-quest. Sure enough, there she stood; she even waved as “he” came striding up.

 

“I’m glad to see you’re taking this so seriously now, Sora,” the other girl said, with a teasing giggle. “Now, all you have left to get are the last two logs.”

 

“On it,” Sarah said, resisting the urge to snap off a casual sort of salute. “I’ll be right back.”

 

As she turned and made to leave, Sarah could almost _feel_ Kairi’s scrutiny on her. She wondered for a moment just what that could mean, but then she decided that it probably wasn’t that important. Even if Kairi _had_ started to take note of the inevitable discrepancies between her behavior and Sora’s – which was pretty much a given since she wasn’t nearly as dense as Riku – most people would just figure that someone was having an off-day, or just showing a new side of themselves. Depending on the circumstances involved.

 

It took a certain kind of person to add two plus two and come up with twenty-two, after all.

 

Hefting the logs up under both of Sora’s arms, Sarah paused for a moment as she felt yet another set of eyes resting on her. She knew who they belonged to, of course, but she was at least mildly curious to know what it was he wanted.

 

“Glad to see you’re almost finished, Sora,” Riku said, a cocky smirk spreading over the lower half of his face. “That means you can teach me whatever it was that you just did to find me out back there.”

 

He sounded like he thought he’d already won, like the fight he’d challenged her to was a mere formality; like someone who thought all he had to do to win was just show up. He had no idea who he was dealing with. Sure, she might not have the strength, stamina, or muscle-memory that she had spent so long training herself to have, but that really only mattered for the more complicated or “showy” moves in her repertoire.

 

She was still perfectly capable of striking at weak-points, kicking people in inconvenient or extremely unpleasant places, throwing someone’s ass all over the place, or paralyzing an opponent with strikes directly to the nerves or pressure-points. Riku was looking a bit uneasy now, and since Sarah could still feel her “your ass is mine now, bitch” smile stretching Sora’s lips, she knew just why that was.

 

“Looking forward to it,” was all she said, turning her attention back to the path she had to travel and continuing on her way.

 

Now that she’d made her resolution to pound Riku into the sand and grind her bootheels into the back of his skull, even if only in a metaphorical sense, Sarah almost felt like whistling.

 

The only way she’d been able to beat Riku on Destiny Islands was to do a fair bit of level-grinding beforehand, and that had been on her _second_ playthrough; the people at Hellfire Commentaries had never managed to do that, but then NTom64 hadn’t done and level-grinding during the previous part of their own playthrough, and The Helldragon had stated later that he didn’t bother with level-grinding at all. She thought that it was kind of interesting, how someone didn’t bother with something that felt like an essential part of her gaming experience, but then not a lot of people were completionests to the same degree that she was.

 

And, not everyone enjoyed curb-stomping their opponents into the ground, either.

 

Meeting up with Kairi again, Sarah smiled as she turned over the logs that she had gathered to the other girl. She didn’t get anything for it, but then she hadn’t been expecting to; that Hi-Potion that Kairi had somehow managed to get her hands on had just been a game mechanic, the same way that Riku had been able to hold a nigh-infinite amount of Potions in those stupid-looking parachute-pants of his. Just something to make completing a fetch-quest or beating the crap out of an idiot that much more rewarding.

 

Leaving Kairi behind, with only a few words of thanks from the other girl, as well as a reminder that the three of them would be setting sail tomorrow, Sarah went off in search of Riku. She’d already made up her mind to kick his ass by any means possible, that she didn’t have to worry so much about her cover since Riku was both dense enough not to notice something that was right in front of him – witness his being so willing to trust Maleficent – and he also had the worst case of tunnel-vision that she had ever seen in anyone, video game character or not.

 

So, he wasn’t likely to notice that she was using moves that Sora never had, or if he did, he was likely to be too angry to consider the full implications of his “old friend’s” new fighting-style. She’d have to watch the trash-talk a bit more than she usually bothered to, however, if she didn’t end up having to cut it out entirely depending on the intensity of the fight. She couldn’t say anything too vulgar or perverse, or make any disparaging comments about Riku’s mother, or threaten him with sudden and/or violent dismemberment, disfigurement, or death or death during the course of their fight; even someone with _his_ kind of tunnel-vision could still notice when someone he’d known for as long as he was implied to have known Sora was being uncharacteristically aggressive, after all.

 

It would have been really annoying to be found out by someone with the degree of tunnel-vision displayed by first-game Riku, as well, so she would still have to be on her guard to some degree.

 

Making her way back over to the bridge, “her” arms free at last of the burdens that she had been carrying, Sarah took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she crossed over to the small islet/arena where she and Riku were going to have it out. Swinging “her” arms and walking a bit more loosely than she usually did, both to limber herself up for combat and to get what little extra experience she could with the way Sora moved, Sarah made it out to the islet where Riku was waiting.

 

“I was starting to think that you weren’t going to show up,” the silver-haired – and damn if that wasn’t as weird to think of as it was to see – said with a smirk, obviously goading.

 

She smirked right back. “Oh, I wouldn’t miss _this_ for the world.”

 

Riku looked thrown for a few moments, obviously not having expected that kind of a response; he regained his mental footing pretty quickly, though. Sarah was almost impressed.

 

“I found your sword, too,” he said, with that same tone he’d used before. “Really careless of you, to leave it lying around the way you did.”

 

It was almost cute, the way he was trying so hard to get a rise out of her; like a poodle yapping at a tank: amusing in its futility.

 

“Who says I need a sword to beat _you_?”

 

That wiped the smirk right off his face, but more than that, it seemed to make him _angry_. And, as she had always told her opponents after she had finished beating them down: you never wanted to let your adversary make you angry. If you let _that_ happen, after all, you’d lost the fight even before the first punch was thrown.

 

She kind of wondered if _Riku_ was going to get the lesson before or after she had pummeled him about the head and shoulders a few times. She supposed that now was as good a time as ever to find that out.

 

“You know, we could stand here exchanging witty banter all day,” she said, just as Riku had opened his mouth to try flinging another barb her way. “Or, I could just pummel you into the sand and the two of us could get on with our lives.” Oh, he _really_ didn’t like that one; this was going to be _fun_.

 

Catching the wooden sword he threw at her, Sarah side-stepped his head-long charge and stuck out “her” left leg to trip him in passing. Sprawled out on the sand, almost flat on his belly, the look Riku gave her was pure, incredulous fury.

 

She smirked, leaning in, but only slightly so she wouldn’t run the risk of being grabbed and pummeled herself; remote as it admittedly was. “Well, that was predictable. You have anything new to show me, or should we just call this fight right here, right now?”

 

He _really_ didn’t like that one; back-stepping to get herself out of range of his swipes, Sarah began to observe his style of attack. She wanted to see if there were any weaknesses that she could exploit, or a pattern that she would be able to predict after some strict observation. Naturally, Riku – impatient and inexperienced with real combat as he was – took her actions entirely out of context.

 

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up already, Sora!”

 

He let his guard down for those few, crucial moments. And then he folded up very nicely around the tip of the wooded sword that she rammed into his stomach. He also made the most interesting _aghngh_ sound when he did; Sarah almost had to laugh.

 

There was something she was supposed to be remembering about that, though; she was having a bit too much fun to recall whatever-it-was properly at the moment, but for some reason Sarah thought that she should go a bit easier on the in-combat taunting. There was also a reason that she shouldn’t just burst out singing “Treasure Sniper” during the lulls of something that could only be charitably called combat, but that was a matter for another time.

 

“You know, if this had been live steel we were fighting with right now, I’d have probably either just disemboweled you, or even mortally wounded you right there,” she said, smirking slightly at the expression of pure and utter “what the _fuck_?!” spreading across Riku’s still slightly-rounded face. Her smirk widened slightly as she tapped him lightly on the neck with what might have charitably been called the edge of her wooden sword. “And now you’re dead.”

 

“Wha- what was _that_ , Sora?!” Riku demanded.

 

“I’m sorry, you just left this big, huge opening that seemed to scream “attack”,” she said glibly.

 

“What?” he demanded again, climbing back to his feet with his left hand over his stomach.

 

He was still stuck on that; he must have been slow.

 

“You let your guard down.” Speaking more slowly and clearly, both so he could at least _try_ to get what she was saying, and because it really seemed to piss him off. “That’s really not a good idea there, sport.”

 

Riku’s face twisted in something resembling the closest that whiney, emo dumbass could get to anger. He was probably going for some kind of intimidation or something like that, but given the fact that she had already floored him once, and the fact that he was almost aggressively stupid during the first game, the attempt fell flat almost immediately.

 

“What’s that look on your face?” she asked, smirking slightly. “You trying not to sneeze, or something?”

 

That got his attention, prompting Riku to charge recklessly at her, his wooden sword held high over his head as if he intended to give her a _severe_ thwacking with it. Stepping calmly out of his path, Sarah grabbed Riku’s sword-less arm and assisted his forward- momentum, right into the sand. Riku came up spluttering – Sarah wondered for a moment if he’d gotten sand in his mouth or if he was just _that_ shocked – and Sarah’s smirk widened ever-so-slightly. Carefully, making sure that he was still watching what she was doing, Sarah stuck the wooden sword she’d been given point-down into the sand, making sure to drive it deep enough that it would stand on its own when she left it there. Then, just to make sure that Riku didn’t get any absurd ideas about her giving up or something stupid like that, she made a “bring it on” gesture with her previously-occupied hand.

 

Riku took the bait, just like she’d always known he would, and charged at her again, sword swinging in a manner that would have been dangerous if he’d been wielding live steel. One would have thought that he’d have learned better after experiencing the results of his last two attempts, but one look at his face told Sarah everything she needed to know: Riku was clearly too angry to think straight at this point.

 

Crouching as Riku came within striking-distance of “her” head and shoulders, she put the full weight and strength of Sora’s body behind a rising-uppercut right into Riku’s gut. The silver-haired boy stumbled backwards, wooden sword falling from his nerveless fingers as he clutched at his stomach.

 

“Watch your _footing_ ,” she taunted, crouching again to deliver a powerful sweep-kick that sent Riku crashing to the ground on his side.

 

Rising back to her feet, Sarah bounced lightly on the balls of said feet a few times, both to loosen herself up a bit more – it was never a good idea to be tense when you were fighting – and to taunt Riku as he lay there staring up at her from his latest harsh encounter with the sand. Riku took the bait almost immediately – honestly, it was almost embarrassing how easily-predictable he was getting; still funny as hell, though – grabbing his sword and charging at her with the kind of reckless abandon that she hadn’t seen in anyone since she had encountered her last strike-team as Alex Mercer. Looking back over her shoulder to judge the distance, she smirked slightly when she saw that she was in almost the perfect place to serve her current needs. Side-stepping out of the way of Riku’s headlong assault on her person, she grabbed his sword-arm before he could overshoot her position, assisting his forward-momentum with a brief, almost involuntary “Hyah!”

 

 _Cue the “yaahh- ker-splash”,_ she mused with genuine amusement, as Riku fell into the ocean with a brief scream. Walking out to the edge of the small islet, knowing that Riku wouldn’t be able to climb back up without the aid of the ladder and the sand-bar he was currently in the wrong position to access, Sarah smiled cheerfully down at him.

 

“I do believe I just won that round.”

 

Riku, after a few, long moments spent seething impotently up at her – moments during which she waved happily down to him – swam for the ladder, and the sand-bar that would allow him to access it. Moving back to the center of the islet, knowing that Riku would be all too happy to push her off, or even pull her off, if she gave him half the chance, Sarah smirked as Riku made his dripping way back over to where she stood waiting for him.

 

“You’re not going to do that again, Sora,” he said, his teeth gritting fury and a harsh glare on his face.

 

She smiled, bland and mocking. “Of _course_ not; I never use the same moves twice in a row.”

 

Well, at least not if her opponent was smart enough to at least begin to anticipate her moves and hence to develop a strategy to counter them. Still, Riku seemed to be doing just that; at the very least, he hadn’t yet charged headlong into yet another throw. Maybe being dumped into the drink had managed to cool his metaphorical heels.

 

Riku was staring at her now, or at least the boy he still thought she was, and he continued to do so even as she slowly paced a circle around him, assessing his stance and his state of readiness the same way she could remember every one of her combat-instructors doing. It wasn’t much of a stance, really; Riku just looked tense, as if he was waiting for some new kind of attack to be used against him.

 

Experimentally, Sarah took a swing at him. The result was pretty much immediate: Riku jumped back, crouched slightly to give himself some much-needed stability, and jabbed at her with his right fist. She dodged of course, moving out of the range of his fists with the same smooth, quick motions that she had used when attacking, but the reaction in itself was still something to see.

 

“Innovation, from you,” she said contemplatively, looking him over once again; she noticed that his sword was missing, and wondered for a moment if he’d dropped it in the water or just put it next to Sora’s, before discarding that whole line of thought as unimportant. “That’s interesting. I have to admit, I didn’t think you were the type. I’m really surprised.” She grinned. “Makes things more fun.”

 

“Oh, so you think this is _fun_ , Sora?!” Riku demanded, looking about as aggravated as she had ever seen him, in-game or not.

 

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

 

It was obvious that Riku didn’t care one little bit for that sentiment, but it was also just as obvious that the lessons she had inadvertently been teaching him while the two of them were having it out had finally begun to stick. _That_ would certainly make things more than a little interesting. She and Riku circled one another, each looking for an opportunity to attack; for that one, crucial opening that would allow them to overwhelm their opponent.

 

Or at least to score a few free hits.

 

Deliberately leaving such an opening, wanting to know if Riku had truly learned his lesson about being so stupidly overconfident or if she still had a few more things to teach him on that front, Sarah waited a few moments as Riku took in her stance as the two of them continued to circle one another. When the silver-haired boy charged, after only a few moments of studying his loosened stance with an ever-growing smirk on his face, Sarah knew that she still had a few more harsh lessons to impart.

 

Grabbing Riku’s right arm as he came within her strike-range, Sarah used his own momentum to whip him into a shoulder-throw that sent him crashing to the ground again.

 

“Wow,” she said off-handedly, knowing that it would irritate him. “You must really like the taste of sand, Riku; you eating enough of it.”

 

Worked like a charm; Riku was back on his feet in seconds, charging at her a few seconds after that, and slamming back into the ground a few moments after he’d run into the hip-throw that he’d been too angry to pay any attention to.

 

“How’s all that sand tasting, Riku?” she asked cheerfully. “I always meant to ask.”

 

“Why don’t you try some of it yourself?!” he demanded, rushing at her with both fists raised in what looked like a crude double-axe-handle.

 

Smiling just as cheerfully as she ever had, Sarah stepped just out of his path and then stuck out her left leg to trip him. Riku went sprawling again, flat on his face in the sand for the third time since they’d started this whole thing.

 

“You know, I don’t think I’m going to be able to try any of that sand if you keep eating it all, Riku.”

 

The boy in question looked back up at her, the expression on his face stating almost clearer than words that he’d have liked nothing more than to take her apart slowly, painfully, and piece-by-piece.

 

“You know, as fun as all this has been, I really think we should end it,” she said, smiling to goad Riku into that final, fateful charge. “There’s a lot more things to get done today, and I have to confess that I really don’t have time to play with you anymore.”

 

Dodging out of the way of Riku’s furious charge a last time, Sarah grabbed his right arm and shoulder-threw him when he tried to come around for another pass at her. As Riku slammed into the ground for what would be the fourth and final time, Sarah shifted her weight and slammed an axe-kick into his head. When he had been sufficiently stunned that she felt that it was safe to move in closer, Sarah moved in behind him and slammed the side of her hand into the back of his neck.

 

“Good night, Riku,” she said, smirking slightly as he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

 

Making her way back off of the tiny islet, Sarah sighed with some satisfaction as she crossed the bridge back to the not-so-much-bigger main island. As she walked, Sarah turned over the thoughts she’d had the first few times that she’d played KH1. There were some new angles now, new things that she had to take into consideration since she was dealing with real people now, but that didn’t necessarily mean that all of her earlier conclusions were completely invalid; it just meant that she was probably going to have to rethink some of them.

 

If there was one thing that would completely blow her cover as Sora, it would be killing or incapacitating Riku to save the rest of the world; Sora just wasn’t the kind of person to think like that.

 

Looking down at the entrance to the so-called secret place – a.k.a. the cavern where you met up with “Ansem” – Sarah turned her attention to the foliage surrounding it. It wouldn’t quite be enough to provide perfect concealment; she would have needed something a lot thicker, deeper, or perhaps higher to provide _perfect_ concealment, but it probably _would_ give people the idea that she didn’t want to be bothered.

 

That would most likely be enough; no one here had struck her as particularly rude or nosy those times that she had played. Still, better to be a bit overly cautious rather than not cautious enough under the circumstances.

 

With that thought in mind, Sarah settled “herself” down in one of the thicker patches of foliage just to the right side of the cavern’s entrance. Taking out the journal that she had appropriated for herself, Sarah began to write down the things she had been considering even _before_ she had been rather forcibly shown that there was a real world with real people behind – or perhaps beyond – the TV screen.


	8. Journal Entry: 3

_Well, since the world is going to explode soon – and there’s pretty much nothing I can do about that – I might as well start preparing for the inevitable._

_Of course, the world-exploding thing might not_ _be as inevitable as it seems. All signs point to Riku being the catalyst, the focal point, for “Ansem” and the Heartless to cross over into this world. Destroy the catalyst, and the entire invasion might go straight off the rails. Of course, one would want to be sure that they weren’t directly connected to the act itself; which does_ _rule out bludgeoning, strangulation, throat-slitting, or any of the various forms of death-by-stabbing._

_There are only so many kitchen accidents you can plausibly fake involving someone who doesn’t seem to cook._

_Still, that doesn’t I don’t have any viable options, it just means I’m going to have to be a bit more creative than I would have otherwise. Suffocation is still an option, provided it’s not obviously deliberate. As is luring him out into deep water, then paralyzing his voluntary skeletal muscles so that he drowns. Though, I will admit that that’s a bit more elaborate than I want to try making my plans at this point._

_Damn, that got a bit more morbid than I was planning; still, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one._

_I don’t know just how many people call this planet home, whether it’s thousands, millions, or 7.5 billion like on good old planet Earth, but if Riku is going to pose a danger to all of them, well- too bad for Riku. Still, I have to admit that I’m not particularly eager to take those kinds of measures if I don’t have to. I’ll take his measure first; who knows, maybe he’s not as much of a thick-headed idiot as the first game would suggest._

_Still, anyone so damned, brazenly stupid as to give anyone as Obviously Evil as Maleficent the metaphorical time of day deserves at least a punch in the head. Which I’m probably going to give him sooner or later. Omnicidal Maniac or not, he’s an irritating little shit._

_This one went on a bit longer than I was planning, so I’d better wrap up quickly – wouldn’t want anyone realizing I’m not who they think I am._


	9. Falling Down

Once she had finished with all of that, Sarah felt a bit more tired than she could easily account for given the oh-so-brief scuffle that she’d had with Riku. Carefully tucking the journal away in one of the large pockets of the bluish-gray shorts that she’d managed to find in Sora’s closet, Sarah yawned deeply and set about settling herself down on one of the softer, thicker patches of foliage nearby.

 

She wasn’t particularly eager to wake up stiff and sore, even after what was probably going to end up being a short cat-nap, but since there were no beds in the area – and she knew that Sora wasn’t really the type to go home just so he could have a nap – Sarah knew that she would have to make do with what she found. Patting down all of the nearby foliage, both to find the softest available and to make sure that there were no rocks – sharp or otherwise – under any of them, Sarah yawned widely one last time.

 

 _Looks like this is the best of the bunch,_ she mused, coming around once again to the large bush that seemed to be made entirely of huge, low-growing green leaves in various shades of such.

 

After making a final check for anything that would bother her while she was napping – rocks, worms, beetles, spiders, or the odd lost left shoe – and moving out those few things she _did_ find, Sarah yawned for a third time, curled up within the leaves of the plant that she had just officially designated the “napping bush”, and closed her eyes.

 

Her last coherent thought was that it would be funny as hell if she ended up having the same kind of dream that Sora did at the beginning of the game...

_... A figure, indistinct but clearly female, stands atop a circular, dark gray platform marked with a single, light-blue ‘X’ that stretches almost to the edges of the platform. As she takes a step closer to the center of the X, the platform shatters beneath her, and she falls into a bottomless gray abyss, tumbling over headfirst and turning into a streak of light as she plunges faster and faster._

_On a beach, a boy with spiky brown hair that seems to casually defy the law of gravity, looks out into the sky as an uncountable number of shooting stars fall toward the ground. One of them seems to be heading towards him, and he blinks up at it as it heads right for him. The shooting star disappears just before the boy falls to the ground on his back._

_The boy kneels, looking up to the sky, before looking down into the ocean in front of him. His reflection in the water changes to an older girl, her light-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, as the water ripples. The boy plunges his hands into the reflection’s face, and rinses his own with the water cupped in them; the resulting spray glitters in the air as it slowly falls._

_The boy stands up, seeing a taller boy with silver hair standing out in the ocean, a wave just beginning to crest behind him; the silver-haired boy reaches out his right hand, beckoning the brown-haired boy to come to him. The brown-haired boy holds out his own right hand, and the silver-haired boy runs back through the ocean to join up with the brown-haired one._

_The wave breaks as the two boys hold their clasped hands above their heads. A red-haired girl joins them, and the brown-haired boy clasps her hand as well, holding it above their heads. All three of them smile, as the brown-haired boy drops both their hands to his sides, then tugs them forward. The three of them race across the beach, holding hands and laughing._

_The ground underneath them begins to tilt upward, gently at first before becoming a steep incline. The three companions unclasp their hands, pumping their arms as they run up the incline; the silver-haired boy takes the lead, while the red-haired girl falls back to the rear. The ground begins to split under them, dividing into three distinct sections, as the remaining sand falls away to reveal that each one of them are standing atop a large pillar; the one with the red-haired girl being the lowest, then the middle one with the brown-haired boy, leaving the silver-haired boy standing atop the highest._

_The third pillar vanishes into the ground, taking the red-haired girl with it as the two boys turn to look back at her. The silver-haired boy reaches out his right hand to the brown-haired one, as the second pillar begins to tremble; holding out his own hand for a moment, the brown-haired boy pulls it back as the pillar shatters and he falls backward, covering his face with it, and opening his fingers just enough to reveal his left eye as he falls into the abyss beneath the pillars._

_A pair of hazel eyes open, blinking once before the face they’re in subtly changes, and the eyes open slightly wider to reveal blue irises, blinking once more. The view pulls back to take in the boy’s body from the waist up, as he continues to fall, turning slightly until he’s falling head first. A ball of pulsating, white light appears in the center of his chest, swiftly spreading out to encompass his entire body, then spreading beyond the ends of his limbs; half a foot beyond the ends of his fingers, and a full foot beyond the tips of his shoes._

_The light wraps around his torso, rippling like sunlight on water, as it forms a distinctly human shape; the figure is larger than the brown-haired boy, and while still slender, is clearly more muscular than him. The swirling, shimmering lights hold the clear shape of a human figure, taller than the boy, and wearing narrower, more pointed boots that taper to squared-off ends, with slender fingers at the end of its arms. The chest area is more indistinct, making the figure’s gender difficult to determine._

_Tumbling gently in the abyss, almost like a leaf freed from its mother tree, the boy rights himself as he continues to fall. An uncountable number of birds begins to take wing, revealing a glowing platform as the boy descends toward it. For just a few moments, he seems to be able to stand on the glowing boots of the rippling, ethereal figure surrounding him, his eyes closed as he raises his arms and curls his fingers outward, the ethereal figure mimicking the action._

_Just as he opens his eyes, watching the last of the birds flying out into the distance, the ethereal figure bursts apart into a cloud of stardust, hovering over the boy’s head, and he lands on his own two feet._


	10. Dream Diver

_ Song list: _ _Hikaru Utada, “Simple and Clean”; Masato Nakamura, “Casino Night Zone”; Aspect, “Sky High Zone”; “Outer Senshi Henshin/Attack theme”; Hikaru Utada, “Hikari”; “Starlights’ Henshin Theme”; Nightwish, “Sacrament of Wilderness”; “Diamond in the Sky”; Kelly Clarkson, “Breakaway”._

 

It wasn’t quite like waking up, since there were still elements of unreality to the situation, not to mention the whole issue of her _having gone to sleep before this._ It was still funny as hell, though.

 

“You- you’re not really the one that I was expecting to meet, here.”

 

It wasn’t Ansem’s voice – or Xemnas’ or Xehanort’s, whatever the hell _he_ sounded like – or even Yensid. _Well, there goes_ that _wild mass guess,_ she mused, raising a metaphorical eyebrow. It was a dream; _everything_ was metaphorical here.

 

“What’s a wild mass guess?” the mysterious voice – it sounded like a boy’s, early or mid teens if she was any judge – asked, and then continued before she had a chance to answer. “No, I can figure that out on my own. The real question is, why are you even here in the first place? Even _you_ know that you don’t belong here.”

 

“You know, I would really love it if I could find someone who could tell me that,” she said glibly. “It would make me very happy.”

 

“ _You_ don’t even know why you’re here?” the mysterious voice demanded, then for the second time continued speaking before she had any chance to answer. “You really _don’t_ have any idea how you ended up here. This place... it was never real, not to anyone in your world. It was just... one out of thousands of different games. That’s... that’s really something,” the voice said, sounding about as confused as Sarah had ever heard an omni-directional, non-corporeal voice sound.

 

“So,” she said, not knowing just how one went about soothing the nerves of a benevolent, non-corporeal intelligence, but figuring that getting things back on track couldn’t hurt. “What happens next?”

 

“Well, since I think you already know where you are, and I’m sure that neither one of us knows how to get you home, why don’t we just continue where we left off?”

 

“Sounds fair,” she said, watching as three short, silver-and-white pedestals rose out of the ground. Out of the stained- glass, rather. “And hey, at least this isn’t Casino Night Zone,” she said with a shrug.

 

“Casino-” the voice of whoever was behind all of this began, and then he laughed. “No, this is _definitely_ not Casino Night Zone. Wow, that place is really weird. Nice music, though.” And suddenly, the world was filled with it; the music of Sonic 2’s Casino Night Zone filling the previously-quiet space. “There’s so much of it,” the voice said, sounding as if he’d entirely forgotten about her for the moment; the current situation was amusing enough that she was completely willing to forgive him for that. “Is all of it from Casino Night Zone?” Abruptly, the music of Sonic 2’s Casino Night Zone was replaced by the Game Gear Sonic 2’s Sky High Zone. “Oh, this one’s called Sky High Zone. Or, is it just _from_ Sky High Zone? Or is it both?” the mysterious voice sounded confused again, but then he chuckled. “I guess it kind of _is_ both.”

 

“You know, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to wake up sometime soon,” she said, with a whimsical sort of smile. “So, if we could move things along?”

 

“Right, right,” the mysterious voice said, and then laughed softly as the world around them fell silent again. “Well, since you’ve already been here so many times before – despite the fact that you’ve never been here at all, but let’s not get into _that_ – and you already know what you’ve chosen, let’s short-hand this, shall we?”

 

With those words, an unportentous as they might have been, the Mickey-headed magic staff appeared in her right hand, and the shortish bastard-sword – the hand-and-a-half marked with the sign of the Mouse – appeared in her left.

 

“You’ve chosen Magic and Might,” the mysterious voice intoned, as off to the side of her the shield continued its lonely revolution. “You choose to be the Fierce Protector; you choose to be first in and last out,” he continued, obviously trying to sound tense and pretentious; he didn’t quite have the pipes for it, but he was making the effort all the same, so Sarah decided that she wouldn’t poke fun at him. “Your strength is best used for protecting others. If you remember that, I think you’ll be all right. You’ll always have people at your back that you can trust,” the voice said, sounding like he was making a promise. “Your instinct and training will see you through, if you just listen to them,” the voice said, sounding like he would have been smiling at her if he’d only had a face.

 

“Yes, mine is the Keyblade that will pierce the heavens,” she said, unable to resist the urge, lame as the line might very well have been.

 

The voice laughed, but then he probably hadn’t had the opportunity to hear many jokes while he was stuck in wherever-this-was all alone like this. “You know, it just might be.”

 

Right then, just as she had started to wonder when it was going to happen, the stained-glass panel that she had been standing on fractured into uncountable shards.

 

“Looks like the ground’s going,” she said, taking a look at the shards of what had once been a sturdy-looking platform.

 

“Well, maybe you should take a Leap of Faith.”

 

Laughing softly as the shards of the platform she had been standing on began to come down all around her, Sarah stood poised for a few moments on the last unbroken fragment of the floor, before she leapt clear; her arms spread wide as though to embrace the void all around her. Landing as lightly as you please on the next platform in the sequence, Sarah looked up to the black, empty sky all around her, smiling slightly even as she raised her eyebrow as if to say _well_?

 

“You’ve gained the power to fight,” the mysterious voice intoned, as the Mickey-headed staff appeared in her hands. “I suppose I don’t have to explain the concept of Mana – not Mana Points anymore, just Mana – to you of all people. But you don’t know any magic right now anyway, so you’re not going to be using that energy for awhile; at least, not until after...” the mysterious voice paused, sounding about as depressed as she had ever heard from him; Sarah figured that she could pretty much guess why. “All of _that_ happens.” And then, it was like the whole world sighed. “Are you _sure_ there’s no way you can stop it?”

 

“I don’t know,” she said honestly, thinking back to all of her earlier calculations. “Can I stop it without knowing the ultimate author of this world’s destruction?” Which was likely enough Masker Xehanort, the utter, short-sighted prick. “Maybe; I think I might be able to do that. Can I do it without making sacrifices?” An apparition of Riku faded into being in front of her; there was a kitchen knife jammed into the apparition’s throat, spilling illusory blood all down the apparition’s neck. There was a look of pure shock on “Riku’s” face, as if what had happened had come as a complete surprise. “I doubt it.”

 

As long as she was wearing this face – this body – any drastic action that she took against Riku _would_ come as a complete surprise; that was her greatest advantage.

 

“Let’s not start planning anything drastic,” the mysterious voice said, sounding honestly shocked by what he’d just heard and seen. “People who’ve been swallowed by the darkness still have the chance to come back. But, dead is,” he paused as if overcome by what she had just implied that she would do, even to preserve a world that she had no real, personal interest in. “Dead is _dead_.”

 

The apparition of Riku on the “floor” at her feet shattered just as the stained-glass platform that she had previously stood on, and the shards fell away to dust even as she watched.

 

“Would you have really done... something like that, Sarah?”

 

“Think about how many people there are, living on this world right now. Just people, nothing special; people who might be kind, who might be cruel, but each of them with lives and loves and hopes and dreams of their own. And now imagine someone who would sacrifice all of them – men, women, children just like himself – for the simple reason that he feels he’s entitled to do so. And now tell me, honestly: does someone like that deserve the life that they were given?”

 

There was a long pause, during which the false world around her almost seemed to be holding its breath, and then the mysterious voice returned, sounding more subdued and more thoughtful than she had ever heard from him before. “So, for the sake of the world, you’d stain your own heart. That’s...” another pause, this one shorter than the last though no less stunned-sounding. “That’s really something.”

 

“It’s not that I’d be eager to do it, or anything.” She’d decided to explain herself, so that the two of them would know where they stood. “Or that I don’t know the consequences of those kind of actions-”

 

“I know,” the voice said gently. “I know you know what you’re doing. Just... be careful. Even with the best of intentions, Darkness can be dangerous. Maybe even _especially_ with the best of intentions.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” she said, thinking back on all tropes and the many, _many_ instances in history when people had committed horrific atrocities “with the best possible intentions”. “That’s why it’s always important to pay attention. Too many people don’t; they just spend their time sort of sleep-walking through life, only really waking up when they find themselves somewhere they don’t like. And, even then, they don’t stay awake for very long; mostly just long enough to get themselves out of whatever situation their lack of attention got them into in the first place. That’s why the first rule is and always has been: stay awake. Pay attention to what’s going on around you, and use what you can to either escape or improve your current situation.”

 

“Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” the mysterious voice said, sounding thoughtful again; Sarah smiled slightly.

 

“That about covers it,” she said.

 

“Well, if you’re going to work in the dark to serve the light, you’re probably going to want to learn to fight it for real. This won’t be just a video game anymore, Sarah.”

 

“Yeah, I kind of noticed that,” she said, turning her attention to the wide, empty expanse of the platform in front of her. Just before the Heartless began to appear, however, a new song began to play.

 

“What in the- is that music from Sailor Moon?”

 

“I thought it sounded good,” the mysterious voice said, as the Outer Senshi Henshin/attack theme continued to play. “Besides,” he said, with a soft laugh. “You seem to like to dance. So, show me how you dance, Sarah,” the voice said, and for a moment Sarah could almost swear that he was smiling in fond amusement.

 

Maybe he was, or would have been under the right circumstances; those like having a face and all.

 

As the song – not a particularly long one and hence kind of odd to use in a battle – ended and the imaginary Heartless paused for a moment as if they were either confused or waiting for something, or possibly both considering the circumstances, Sarah made her way up to the forefront of the confused-seeming ranks of Shadows. Sure enough, just as she had begun to suspect would be the case, when the Outer Senshi theme began to play again, the Shadows surges forward to attack.

 

Moving with the rhythm of the music that seemed to be coming from all around her, Sarah slammed the magic staff down on the first Shadow that came barreling at her, then turned on her right heel and swept two more aside with a wide swing that would have been just as suited to someone with a Louisville Slugger. Stepping forward in time with the music that surrounded her dream-self, Sarah slashed, smashed, evaded, and engaged the dream-Shadows that were fighting her for supremacy in this place-that-wasn’t-really-a-place.

 

Once the music had stopped, the last of the Shadows – the one that she had been too far away to tag in time – vanished like it had never been there at all.

 

“So,” she began, feeling more refreshed than anyone could reasonably ask for after a fight. “How was that?”

 

“Good. That was good,” the mysterious voice said, though he sounded a bit distracted; Sarah wondered why for a moment, before deciding that his thoughts were his own and she wouldn’t pry into them.

 

She’d want the same courtesy for herself, after all.

 

Looking back down at the platform she was standing on she found that, sure enough, large blotches of darkness were appearing almost at random on the surface of the thing. Some of them would converge with each other, forming large pools or puddles of the stuff. It wasn’t like normal darkness, which was just on absence of light; no, this stuff moved almost like a liquid, one that had been given sentience and a sort of animal hunger.

 

It moved like it wanted to consume everything. It was fascinating, in that same way that any wild, dangerous animal was; fascinating in that way that said look, but don’t touch.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who compared the Darkness to an animal before,” the mysterious voice said, sounding thoughtful.

 

“Not many people _would_ think to compare the two, I don’t think,” she said absently, most of her attention focused on the liquid-darkness swirling just around her feet; it hadn’t moved to cover them or to pull her under yet, almost as if it was asking permission. “Most people who encounter this kind of thing are too busy trying to escape from it to consider just what it is that they might be dealing with. Other people try to control it and end up getting eaten, since the one thing you never want to do with a predator is try to forcefully control it when you’re one of its chosen prey. You can only avoid being eaten for so long under those kind of circumstances.”

 

“Why do you say that, Sarah?” the voice asked, as the liquid-darkness around her feet began to swirl more enthusiastically.

 

“Well, when you control anything through brute-force, the one thing you always fear is losing that control. It’s instinct; even if the fear itself is only subconscious: because whoever is trying to control the darkness by force knows that they can never let their guard down, they can never rest, they can never really _sleep_ again, or their hard-won control is going to slip and they’re going to be devoured for it. At the same time, they know that it’s impossible for anyone to maintain perfect awareness at all times of the day and night. Sooner or later, they’ll slip; and if they’re smart enough to know that, then they try everything they can to avoid that. That kind of thing makes them stressed, and that stress produces a fear of losing themselves. And, when you show fear to any kind of predator, but especially to a creature of pure instinct like a Heartless,” _Or a Hollow,_ she mused, staring down at the mass of swirling darkness around her feet for a long moment; she’d wondered if the bright, purple-violet light that she’d glimpsed within the mass had just been an artifact of gameplay, just something to show that the darkness was moving rather than just sitting there, and as it turned out it was. Just not in the way she had figured it would be: there _was_ color within the darkness, but it was an indigo so dark that it almost looked black itself. “You’re signaling that you’re its rightful prey.”

 

“I’d never thought of it _that_ way,” the mysterious voice said thoughtfully. “But then, I don’t think I ever studied animals or anything like that.”

 

“So you _were_ actually someone else before you got involved with all of this,” she said, looking back up and away from the interplay of color and darkness at her feet before she could become mesmerized by it again. “I’d wondered.”

 

“Yeah, I was someone before I came here,” the voice said, sounding as if he’d have been smiling gently if he could have smiled at all. “I just... don’t remember who.”

 

That melancholy feeling in the air, the one that the two of them never seemed to be able to escape, was back again in full force. She didn’t even need to hazard a guess why: anyone would be depressed after talking about _that_ kind of thing.

 

Now, however, since there was really nothing else for them to talk about, she looked back down at the darkness that was still placidly swirling just slightly away from the heels and toes of her feet. It was almost as if there had been some kind of mutual signal given between the two of them; and on reflection, Sarah realized that there probably had been.

 

The next thing she knew, the darkness around her feet had swirled up around her body into something that probably resembled a hollow black tube shot through with indigo to anyone who was there to see it from the outside. The darkness still didn’t touch her, however, and when Sarah stuck her left hand out into the body of the cylinder, it only felt like she was holding her hand out into a thick, chill wind.

 

“Well?” she prompted, staring into the dully-colored walls of the cylinder all around her.

 

That seemed to be all she needed to do, since the cylinder closed over her head just after she had finished speaking. It was like jumping out of a plane at night, falling through the cold air and wind on the way to a destination that you couldn’t really see. But, it was like falling and also knowing – with prefect certainty – that you would not only survive the landing, but that you would be perfectly fine wherever you ended up.

 

It took some trust in the process to be able to do that, but she had jumped out of a few planes in her time.

 

Landing in a crouch when she had finished falling, more due to instinct than any need to absorb a nonexistent impact, Sarah rose back to her feet and surveyed the new platform she found herself standing on. It all seemed to be pretty much in order, right down to the off-pink door standing just outside the absolute center of the circular platform. The only thing that was truly different between the two scenarios was the fact that this particular off-pink door wasn’t translucent in the slightest.

 

“Still with me?” she asked, looking up in the general direction that the voice seemed to be coming from.

 

“Yeah, I’m still here,” the voice responded after a moment. “I was just getting my bearings.”

 

“That’s good to hear,” she said; and it was, if kind of a strange sentiment from a disembodied voice.

 

Then again, given the fact that he’d obliquely stated that he’d been a human at some earlier time, maybe it wasn’t so strange at all.

 

Making her way over to the off-pink door, the one that she could almost swear was made out of some kind of marble – or at least would have been if any of this had been real – Sarah heard something from the voice that she hadn’t ever heard before, and hadn’t honestly ever expected to: he was laughing. Like someone who had either heard a funny joke or thought of one.

 

“What’s so funny?” she asked, turning to look back up at the voice even as she stood in front of the off-pink door.

 

“This is not a field-icon. It won’t show up on your Command Menu when you approach anywhere closer than a few feet, because you don’t _have_ a Command Menu anymore. Because this isn’t a video game.”

 

She tilted her head slightly. “It appears my inner-voice is a wiseass. How _ever_ shall I react to that?”

 

“Please; your _outer_ voice is a wiseass, Sarah. Now, would you kindly step through that door so we can start getting to know each other better?”

 

Sarah couldn’t quite hold back a laugh as the voice used that particular phrase, and she wondered for a moment if he knew just what kind of significance it held – or if she should tell him – before deciding that that particular reference/in-joke required a bit more explanation than she really wanted to take the time for. “All right, but I’ll tell you this right now: if this leads to some dippy personality quiz, I’m going to find a way to get to where you are so I can kick your ass.”

 

“Yeah, I’m getting how much that thing irritated you,” the voice said, after a few seconds’ pause. “You’re not going to find anything like that through this door. That wouldn’t even have told me anything about _you_ , anyway. The answers were all pre-set, and the questions weren’t particularly relevant, anyway.”

 

“That’s reassuring,” she said, making her way over to stand in front of the large, pale-pink double-doors that stood just off-center on the platform she had fallen onto.

 

It was now completely obvious that they would have been made out of some kind of marble if any of this had been real, and as she paused to consider that for a moment, Sarah wondered about the doors that had appeared in front of the cave that Sora, Kairi, and possibly Riku had covered carvings. And, even about the Door to Light itself.

 

Would they all manifest as double-doors made out of some kind of marble, or did that kind of thing just depend on the expectations of the person seeing them? If she concentrated on changing her own expectations, could she then make the doors appear as one of the sliding-doors on Star Trek? Or even a mini-Stargate?

 

She probably wasn’t going to get the chance to test out her idea when the first real door appeared, since then she was going to be just a _little_ bit preoccupied with the whole exploding-planet deal, but the Door to Light itself might be a good time, since things would have calmed down quite a bit by the time they all got there.

 

But all of that, as interesting as interesting a mental diversion as it was, was for later. Now, she had a task to complete. It might not have been the most vital of things out there in the “real world”, but here it would take her one more step closer to waking from this strangest and most lucid of all dreams.

 

Pressing her palms against the cool, smooth stone of the doors, itself no more real than she was in this place-that-wasn’t-quite, Sarah shoved them wide open while driving in a deep-forward stance. The expected flash of light near-blinding light came, no more painful than anything else that she hadn’t really experienced here, but when it cleared, Sarah saw something that she hadn’t been expecting at all.

 

She stood at the threshold of her own room, back in her house on the world that she was aiming to get back to at the end of all this. Everything was just how she had left it, or maybe she should say just how she _remembered_ it. Because there was no way that this scene, as wonderful as it was to see, could be anything but a memory.

 

“You’re right,” the voice said, before she could start to wonder for too long where he was. “I pulled this memory out of your heart. I wanted to see what your house looked like, to see if I could get to know you better by seeing the place where you grew up. But, you _didn’t_ really grow up here, did you?”

 

She laughed softly, even as the remix of “Hikari” that played during the opening of the Japanese version of KH1 began to play in the background, as if to underscore just how deeply bizarre and completely unreal this whole situation was. “No, I _definitely_ did _not_ grow up here.”

 

For a moment, the whole of the room she now stood in wavered slightly, becoming noticeably less-than-solid as she thought about the other rooms that she had spent time in while her eldest brother, her father, and the mother that none of them knew particularly well all worked to save up the money to truly establish themselves in their own space. None of those rented spaces had really been home, had really felt like _hers_ , in the same way that this place – one that she’d carved out with tools and time and money – had always felt. The music that had been playing in the background, soft enough up to that point to be rather easily ignored, became louder then.

 

The song itself was just the same as it had been when she’d first noticed it, which made things a bit amusing for her for reasons that Sarah didn’t particularly care to examine; but even as their surroundings became clear and solid once more, Sarah saw an apparition of herself in the middle of the room.

 

And the apparition actually _looked_ like her, right down to the just-over-shoulder-length dark-blonde hair pulled back in a tight-ish ponytail at the back of her head. From her current distance she couldn’t see the hazel eyes that the memory-her would have had – the ones that could look either light brown or light green depending on how the light hit them – and the long, buttoned-up white coat obscured the comfortable, casual clothes that she wore 99% of the time.

 

The reason that memory-her was wearing said coat, as well as the pair of plastic woodshop goggles that she currently had on, was made plain by the rather large chainsaw that she was currently jamming into a wall that was just as semi-transparent as she was.

 

“This might seem like kind of a strange question, Sarah,” the voice said, sounding like _he_ at least thought it would be. “But, why were you chainsawing a wall?”

 

“Renovation,” she said plainly, as the memory-figure in front of her changed to one that was smoothing out the floor with an electric belt-sander. “You would not _believe_ how small the rooms were in this old house when we bought it.” Or he might, depending on the kind of house he’d lived in, back when he’d still been alive; but then he couldn’t actually _remember_ any of that, so it was really a moot point in any case. “I needed to knock down the walls to three of them, just so I could have a place I’d feel comfortable for more than just sleeping. Two of the others I use for a closet and a Costume Vault, and then there’s my game room,” she said, tilting her head and smiling in a fond, nostalgic way.

 

“Costume vault?” the voice echoed, sounding like she’d caught his interest. “Why do you have something like _that_? What do you keep in there? I mean, aside from the obvious,” the voice finished, after a short pause during which Sarah thought that someone with a face would have looked sheepish.

 

Smiling a bit wider to put him at ease, and because it was seriously starting to amuse her how easy it was to hold a conversation with someone who wasn’t actually there; pretty much like talking on the phone, really. “I use it to store what I feel are the best examples of my work, or just the ones I like better than any of the others.”

 

“Your work?” the voice echoed, sounding ever-so-slightly confused; the same way that most people who were just getting to know her sounded when they found out that she had a job. Or, someone who’d only seen one side of her, when they found out what it was. “What do you mean by that?”

 

“Williams’ Creature Shop; cosplay, cosplay accessories, special effects in conjunction with BioWeapons.com. You want something that doesn’t exist? I can make it for you,” she said, feeling a definite swell of pride as she completed the spiel, before realizing that she had probably sounded a lot like a used-car salesman and hence having to resist the urge to facepalm.

 

“Wow, that sounds interesting,” the voice said earnestly, bringing the smile back to her face. “Can I see your costume vault?”

 

“In a manner of speaking,” she said, even as the strains of “Hikari” playing in the background served to remind her of the unreality of their current situation.

 

Making her way to the far end of her remembered-room, to the same wall that her non-game TV rested against, Sarah turned a sharp right at said far wall and headed for the door in the wall perpendicular to it. The door itself was fairly plain, dark-brown and unadorned by any of the signage or posters that she had hung on the door to her room or the one leading to her workshop. But, in this case more than some others, it was what was _behind_ the door that really counted.

 

When she opened the door to this remembered version of her Costume Vault, Sarah found that the light was already on. That fit, since whenever she opened the door to her Vault, the first thing she would always do before anything else was to turn on the light. The thing that _did_ strike her as kind of odd about the Vault she was now looking into was the fact that none of the costumes she was looking at were covered in any way.

 

She had always kept them under opaque dust cloths, both for obvious reasons and to keep the ones she wasn’t showing off for potential clients from being faded by the lights. The costumes she was currently seeing were all completely uncovered; but then she supposed _that_ fit, too.

 

There wouldn’t be any risk of dust or fading in a place that was made out of memories, and the dust clothes had never made much of a mental impact as compared to the costumes; Sarah really shouldn’t surprised not to find them.

 

“So, who _are_ all of these guys?” the voice asked.

 

Sarah almost smiled at the sheer, odd nostalgia of the situation. _Looks like I have another client._

 

The voice laughed. “If that’s how you want to think of it,” he said cheerfully. “Go ahead, wow me with your mad sewing skillz.”

 

Laughing softly as she made her way past the front of the group of freestanding, costumed mannequins, Sarah paused to consider them for a moment. “You know, if you really want to get the full effect of any of these costumes, you really need to see them with-” she fell silent for a long moment, because just before she’d said the last word of her intended sentence, a wig had appeared on the blank, faceless head of every mannequin that had been arrayed in front of her. Hair in a variety of styles and colors, some more outlandish than others, appeared to spill down the necks – and sometimes across the foreheads - of the mannequins in the Vault.

 

“Wigs,” she finished, though there was no real reason for her to bother anymore.

 

The voice chuckled softly, sounding about as amused as she felt whole situation, and Sarah rolled her eyes briefly before making her way to stand before the red-and-black costume at the center-front of the room.

 

“This one here is Vincent Valentine,” she said, looking fondly at the wine-red velvet and black cotton outfit that represented some of her best work to date. “It’s mostly machine-made, but I did do _some_ hand-stitching, too. Mostly around the buckles and clasps, but I also did a fair bit of it on the cape,” she said, walking around to the back of the mannequin to display that very feature. “Now, much as it pained me to shred up a perfectly good length of velvet,” she tilted her head wryly, inviting him to share in the joke the same way she had done with her other first-time clients. “That was what the costume called for. Of course, to make sure that the fabric itself didn’t start to unravel, I had to stitch up parts of the “frayed” edges, but I made sure that that kind of thing wouldn’t be too noticeable. Now, the main thing you want to be aware of when you’re making a costume for someone is whether or not they want it to _look_ like a costume. Some of these pieces _are_ costumes, even in the series they come from: something that a character puts on and takes off. Something that has to be kept in good condition for presentation’s sake. At the same time, some of these outfits here – like’s Vincent’s, for example – are working clothes in the series they come from. Something that the character in question has lived, worked, and even – most importantly with regards to both the costume and the character wearing it – fought in. so, depending on the level of realism you’re looking for, you’re going to be seeing frays, seams that might be coming loose, or even those that have started to unravel and had to be repaired – either by a professional tailor or the character themselves, if there’s any real reason for them to have developed those kinds of skills – and ragged edges along the cuffs of the pants and sleeves.”

 

“Wow,” the voice said, sounding just a little overwhelmed. “I never knew there was so much to know about clothes.”

 

She chuckled softly, having heard that sentiment and a few more just like it during the three years she’d been doing business for herself. Sometimes it could be annoying, but the voice hadn’t sounded arrogant or dismissive, so Sarah in turn felt no desire to drive a ballpoint pen into his eye.

 

“There is when you’re the one making them,” she said, then smiled in rueful recognition. “But really, it’s the same way for everything most people take for granted: it takes a lot more effort to make things than most people realize when they just look at something. That’s why I try not to take anything for granted. I’m not saying I succeed all the time or anything, but I at least try to remember that.”

 

“I guess that’s all people can really ask: that other people remember them,” the voice said, sounding like he was talking about something else entirely.

 

Sarah didn’t have to think long at all to realize what that was. “Even without a name, I think it’d be pretty hard for me to forget _you_.”

 

The voice laughed softly, sounding about as happy as she had ever heard him. “Thanks, Sarah. That means a lot to me.”

 

“Anytime,” she said, looking up in the general direction that the voice had always seemed to come from.

 

“You know, I think you might just be able to do this, Sarah,” the voice said, after what had clearly been a pause for some needed thought. “Your heart might not be pure Light, but you seem to have a better relationship with Darkness than anyone else. The way you talk, I don’t _think_ you’ll fall to it.”

 

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she said, smiling to take the sting out of what, under other circumstances, would have been a particularly sarcastic turn of phrase.

 

“Well, no one can really know what the future holds,” the voice said, sounding like he’d have been smiling if that whole pesky lack-of-a-face thing hadn’t gotten in the way. “Eve you don’t; not really. You just know how they went for _a_ Sora, during a game you played. You know the general shape of events, but just by being yourself and not Sora, you’re going to change the specifics.”

 

She chuckled. “True.”

 

“Come on, I think we’ve talked about costumes enough,” the voice said. “Why don’t you show me the rest of your room?”

 

“All right,” she said, pausing to brush an imaginary flake of dust from “Vincent’s” left shoulder. “A tour it is, then.”

 

The voice laughed softly, and Sarah turned to grin up in his general direction. But, just as she was about to start making her way out of her Costume Vault, Sarah found herself standing in front of the chest-high, Plexiglas-fronted-and-topped display case that stood at the near-center of her collection, right next to all of the Guyver figures. Sitting under a Plexiglas box – that in the real world she had to keep dusted – was a large, cold-cast resin piece that she doubted would ever lose its pride-of-place as the prize of her collection.

 

Of course, the fact remained that these shelves of hers were on the opposite side of the room from the door to her closet and Costume Vault; as well as being in the middle of the wall rather than the far right like the door to her Vault.

 

“Space is a bit wonky in here,” she commented, wearing one of her more whimsical smiles.

 

“This is a memory, Sarah,” the voice said, sounding like he’d have been smiling again if not for the whole disembodiment issue. “Space is what you make of it in here. Anyway,” he continued, as she shot a Look in his general direction. “Tell me about these guys. The two in the middle look happy, but those two on either end of them look scary,” he paused for a moment, and then continued in a far more subdued tone. “They look like monsters.”

 

She smirked, though the expression was a bit more reflective than usual. “Most people seem to think that when they first see these two; even some of the people they’re trying to protect.”

 

“These four are heroes, you mean?” the voice asked, sounding curious but like he could be convinced. “All of them?”

 

“There’s really only two of them present; those two armored-looking things on the far sides of the bench those two are sitting on are actually alternate forms that those two transform into to fight,” she explained. “The technical term for that would be Henshin Hero,” she said, with a semi-amused smile.

 

“Oh,” the voice said. “Well, tell me about the two of them, then.”

 

“This is Takaya Aiba, and his twin brother, Shinya,” she said, pointing first to the red-haired figure sitting on the right-hand side of the sculpted bench, and then to the blond-with-green-undertones leaning against his back. “They’re from a series called Star Knight Tekkaman Gemini. Now, this piece was a limited-run “OAV special” sculpt – one of only five hundred that were ever made – from Comic Con 2000. And, I’ve gotten completely off-topic again, haven’t I?” she asked rhetorically, having a rather strong urge to either facepalm or roll her eyes.

 

“It’s all right,” the voice said, with that same understanding tone he’d had before. “I can tell how much it means to you. But really, five hundred pieces doesn’t really sound that limited to me.”

 

She laughed outright that time; she couldn’t help it. “It is when you go to an even like Comic Con, believe me.” She paused, smirking slightly. “Heck, given how many people show up every year, even one or two _thousand_ pieces wouldn’t last much longer than just the five hundred they made of this one.”

 

“Wow,” the voice said, sounding stunned by what he’d just heard. “I couldn’t even _imagine_ that many people in one place. That building they have it in every year must be _huge_.”

 

“It’s the San Diego Convention Center, made just for those kinds of events,” she said, then chuckled softly. “Of course, lately there’s been some talk about moving it out of the area, since all of the various events have started to spill out into the hotels surrounding the Convention Center.”

 

“That’s… I don’t even know what to _say_ about something like that,” the voice said, sounding for once completely stumped.

 

Sarah laughed softly. “Not so many people on _my_ world do, either.”

 

“Each of these figures, they have a story behind them, don’t they?” the voice asked, though the question itself sounded rhetorical.

 

Sarah somehow doubted that he was merely talking about how she’d gotten them. “Yeah. Each of these characters comes from a different series,” she said, with a wide sweep of her right arm to take in the five shelving units standing side-by-side. “And all of them have had at least _some_ part to play in their respective stories. Some bigger than others,” she finished, as her roving eyes fell on eleven figures of The Doctor, some of his many, _many_ Companions, and the TARDIS itself at the back of the group.

 

“I wish I could hear more of them,” the voice said, sounding wistful.

 

“Who says you can’t?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “This _is_ a dream, isn’t it? Time is what we make of it, here.”

 

“You’re partly right, Sarah,” the voice said, still sounding wistful, but also like he’d have been smiling again were it only possible for him to do so. “This conversation we’ve been having may be happening at the speed of thought, but time _is_ still passing in the outside world,” the voice continued, and Sarah knew that he was just as interested as she had been in the conversation that they could apparently no longer have.

 

“Well, I suppose I’ll just have to come back so we can continue this,” she said, folding her arms behind her head and looking up in the voice’s general direction.

 

“I’d like that,” the voice said, though his tone sounded like he didn’t think that that was particularly likely.

 

She’d just have to prove him wrong, then.

 

The room around her faded out into light, with the music that had been just loud enough to register on an almost subconscious level while she and the voice had been talking – and had still been “Hikari” on an endless loop – becoming louder in what she would have almost thought was an effort to call attention to itself in an actual, living thing, before fading out with the remnants of the light.

 

When the last of the light had faded away, Sarah found herself standing back on the familiar, brightly colored platform.

 

“I trust you know what to do?” the voice asked rhetorically, as the Mickey-marked sword appeared in her hands.

 

“Right,” she said, sinking into a defensive stance as the telltale figures of Shadows began to fade into view; she was a bit curious about the sword thing, since the weapon that had usually appeared in her hands was the staff, since she had always chosen magic first for the sheer amusement of raining down fire, lightning, and other unpleasant things down on the heads of her enemies, but as another song started up – the Sailor Starlights’ battle theme this time – and the Shadows jumped in on the attack, Sarah knew that it was time to stop thinking and start fighting.

 

Moving with the rhythm of the music, immersing herself in it she struck and dodged and struck again, Sarah reflected briefly that this was easier than any fight that she would ever encounter in the outside world. She’d no need to worry about catching her breath, not much about keeping her balance; and hell, she wasn’t even burning calories and hence wouldn’t need to eat more later. It would be all too easy for her or anyone to get complacent after too much fighting like this.

 

Once the last of the Shadows had been cleared from the field, with the song playing in the background having only had to repeat itself twice, Sarah allowed herself to relax, if only in a mental sense.

 

“You’re almost there, Sarah,” the voice said, sounding wistful again; she wondered a bit why that was, since it wasn’t like the two of them would never meet again.

 

“Yeah,” she said, watching in detached semi-amusement as the stained glass stairs formed out of the nothingness all around them, leading up and off to the next platform – the _last_ platform – just out of sight. “One last stop, eh?”

 

“Yeah,” the voice said, not sounding sad, but not sounding like he was particularly _happy_ , either. “One last stop.”

 

“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling up in the voice’s general direction once again. “We still have a conversation to finish. You should know that I never leave a conversation unfinished if I can help it,” she grinned. “It’s against my religion.”

 

Saluting the surrounding void with her sword, Sarah chuckled softly as she heard the voice’s incredulous, cheerfully surprised laughter. Making her way up the stairs in front of her as the echoes of the voice’s laugh died away, Sarah mentally prepared herself for what she would soon be facing. The Darkside; one of the most piss-easy and yet fuckhuge enemies in KH1.

 

She didn’t know if that held true for the series as a whole, since she hadn’t played much of said series, but then she wasn’t going to be _facing_ enemies from the series as a whole; just Darkside and his little horde of Shadows.

 

When she stood at last atop the final platform, Sarah looked out into the surrounding void and smiled slightly.

 

“This is the end-game, Sarah; the final test,” the voice said, still sounding a bit depressed by the idea but nowhere near as down as he had before. “Are you ready for this?”

 

“Ready, willing, and able,” she said, both to let the voice know how things stood, and to perhaps make him feel a bit better.

 

“All right,” he said, and for a moment Sarah thought she could _feel_ the false world around her shivering in anticipation. “Then, begin!”

 

Even expecting it the way she had learned to do from the last two times – or three, depending on whether one counted the instance beyond the door or not – the music that started after she had demonstrated her resolve came as something of a surprise. It was by Nightwish this time; the song called Sacrament of Wilderness.

 

A song that she had listened to several times while she had been beating seven kinds of crap out of “Ansem”-possessed Riku; it was a song that she remembered fondly.

 

Light flared behind her throwing Sarah’s shadow out, long and distorted, on the platform before her. As the Darkside rose like some twisted, ancient colossus, Sarah gave ground so that she would have the room she needed to maneuver when the time came. She was already picking up on some differences between this Darkside and the one that Sora had faced in KH1.

 

This particular Darkside’s head seemed to be smooth and completely hairless for one, a sharp contrast to the mass of writhing, dreadlock-looking tendrils that had crowned the head of what could have been called Sora’s Darkside.

 

As this particular Darkside rose to its full, imposing height, Sarah looked up the length of the oversized Heartless to see if she could spot any other differences between the one that Sora had – or would have – faced, and the one that she was now facing.

 

 _What in the- I don’t believe it, it’s-_ “ _Mercer_?” she finally said aloud, the sheer incongruity of her current situation finally overcoming her oft-stated resolve not to speak in battle unless she was taunting her opponent.

 

Okay, so it wasn’t _actually_ , Prototype’s Alex Mercer, but damn if it wasn’t a very good likeness; even on a creature made of darkness, Sarah could spot the details of Mercer’s trademark outfit.

 

The folds of his untucked shirt, his hoodie, and the leather jacket that he wore over all of them were clearly defined on the Darkside she was facing, although they were smoother than they would have been on any human who had worn them; even those that had been on the in-game figure of Mercer himself. The Darkside’s legs were perfectly smooth, and clearly muscled like the rest of the figure, but Sarah had the distinct feeling that if there had been a scrap of color on that Darkside apart from black and yellow, it would have been the faded blue of Mercer’s jeans.  The Darkside’s yellow eyes glared down at her from the shadows of its deep, black hood; and even as she watched, four long, sinuous, barb-tipped tendrils emerged from the Darkside’s back, two on each side.

 

Sarah knew those tendrils as well as she knew any of the other gameplay-elements of Prototype: these were the extra appendages that Alex used to grab his prey, to pin them down and hold them in place for a viral feeding-frenzy. She didn’t quite know what the _Darkside’s_ tendrils would do if they managed to catch hold of her, but given what – or rather, who – the thing’s form was based on, Sarah was willing to bet that it wouldn’t be anything good.

 

Jumping back and out of the way as the Darkside-Mercer’s pseudo-feeder-tendrils stabbed into the spot where she had just been standing, Sarah watched in mild surprise as four dark-portals appeared at the impact points and each spat out four Shadows before closing. _I kind of wondered what else those things were going to be used for,_ she mused, as the Darkside drew itself back up to its full height and glared down at her with those freaky, empty yellow eyes.

 

Keeping a part of her field-of-vision focused on the Darkside so that she would know if it tried to do anything drastic and hence be better able to avoid it than she would have been otherwise, Sarah waded – slashing and hacking – into the fray with the Shadows.

 

The fast tempo of the music all around her served the same purpose as it had before, during the fight with possessed-Riku at Hollow Bastion: to energize and invigorate her so that she fight to the best of her ability. The Shadows put up a fairly decent fight, but without the limitations of the real world to hold her back, Sarah was done with them in what felt like only a few seconds.

 

When Darkside-Mercer slammed its tendrils into the ground all around her for the second time, Sarah decided to take a calculated risk. Grabbing the tendril closest to her, Sarah wrapped her left arm around the tendril and gripped the sword she’d been given all the more tightly in her right hand. Riding the ascending tendril up to Darkside-Mercer’s hooded head, she let go just as the tendril began to thrash. Sarah ended up landing on Darkside-Mercer’s left shoulder.

 

With barely a moment spent to steady herself after the landing, she ran across the shoulder and slammed her sword down on the oversized Heartless’ head. Darkside-Mercer recoiled from the blow, and Sarah quickly grabbed hold of the thing’s hood to steady herself as the creature made every effort to throw her off.

 

Using her handhold as leverage in a way that she never would have been able to if the laws of physics had been in full-effect, Sarah whaled on Darkside-Mercer with the sword in her right hand. She barely spared a thought for anything besides the colossus she was currently beating on, only sparing enough to ensure that she wouldn’t be taken by surprise by any of the tendrils it was sporting. So, when thick, black smoke began pouring out of the thing’s hood, Sarah took no notice of it at first, only continuing to pound away at her adversary.

 

It was only when her footing began to feel particularly treacherous that Sarah jumped free, landing in a low crouch after what she could have almost sworn was a backwards Leap of Faith.

 

Darkside-Mercer collapsed on his side facing her, huge yellow eyes boring into her own, and wisps of smoky darkness rising from its remains like steam. Almost as if the giant Heartless was being boiled away.

 

“Wow,” the voice said, as Sacrament of Wilderness faded into the soundless – or mostly soundless – void around them. “When you get into a fight, you _really_ get into it, don’t you Sarah?”

 

“Sometimes,” she said, as in front of her Darkside-Mercer evaporated and faded away into nothingness. “So, I guess it’s time for me to wake up now, huh?”

 

“If you really want to,” the voice said, though he didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about the idea.

 

Of course, given his rather unique circumstances, Sarah found that she couldn’t really blame him. After being so completely alone for God-knew-how-long, and then finally finding someone to actually talk to rather than just lob exposition at… well, _she_ might not have been entirely enthusiastic about the prospect, but then she’d never had any particular problem with solitude. Still, this being a realm of thoughts and memories and all, maybe she didn’t have to just leave.

 

Not without giving a certain, mysterious voice one hell of a send-off, at least.

 

Concentrating, drawing on a memory that always – and probably always would – been one of her personal favorites, Sarah watched the stained-glass pillar they were standing on, as well as the empty world all around them, changed to a place that she knew quite well. Even after having spent such a comparatively short time in there, she remembered it well; scenes of happy memories always _did_ seem to linger, she’d found.

 

 _“Another day is like a new beginning…”_ sang the new song that had started as the empty world around them both transformed into the cabin of a jet, cargo-bay doors opened on the warm, bright, breezy sky that practically _invited_ one to leap out and embrace it on the way down; to feel the wind wrap around you, and catch you before you had fallen too far.

 

The sky was calling: time to fly.

 

“So, _that’s_ what you really look like,” the mysterious voice said, and when Sarah looked over at him she found that she had to smile.

 

“That’s an interesting self-image you have there.”

 

And it really was; seemed a certain mysterious voice was well and truly enamored with the whole “mysterious man of mystery” thing. The Mysterious Figure – Sarah thought that since he actually _had_ a figure now, changing his designation a bit wouldn’t be too presumptuous – was dressed from neck-to-feet in an outfit that looked like some bizarre hybrid of motorcycle leathers and a wet-suit. The suit itself was sculpted to look like it had muscle tone, and on anyone else it would have looked completely stupid; and Sarah would have laughed at the wearer for their pretentious overcompensation.

 

Still, if a guy who didn’t seem to remember what he’d looked like wanted to make himself look good, she wouldn’t be the one to go stomping all over his fun.

 

“I don’t think this is really what I’m supposed to look like,” the mysterious figure said, examining his gloved hands with the blank, featureless motorcycle helmet he had for a head. “It’s just… this is the first thing that came to me.” He shrugged, seeming a bit helpless, even through the flat, featureless nature of his costume. “I don’t know, maybe the person I was before met someone who looked like this.”

 

“Could be,” she said, noting that the music had stopped while the two of them had been talking, and restarting it with a thought as she made her way over to him.

 

“So, what are we actually _do_ -” the mysterious figure trailed off, his body language expressing pure shock – rather eloquently, Sarah thought – as he stared out the open doors at the back of the plane. “Wow; we’re _really_ high up.”

 

“No better altitude for sky-diving,” she said, smiling as she adjusted the pair of mirrored, polarized ski-goggles that she had just manifested for herself.

 

There wasn’t really much point to her having them, Sarah knew, since there was no actual wind to whip past her face as she fell; witness the complete lack of noise in the cabin, aside from the music and the two of them speaking at points.

 

“ _Sky_ -diving?” the mysterious figure echoed, looking from her to the vast expanse of air between them and the tiny-looking ground so far, far below them.

 

“Yeah,” she said, nodding as she manifested the snowboard that she had used for this particular dive; or really, the dive that this memory of hers was based off of. “It’s something fun to do, back where I come from.”

 

“The people on your world have weird pastimes,” the mysterious figure said, continuing to stare out the cabin doors, even as a snowboard – black like her own, and hence fitting in really well with his whole ensemble – appeared in his hands.

 

She laughed. “Well, not _everyone_ in my world likes to go sky-diving,” she acknowledged, still smiling. “In fact, it’s kind of considered a strange hobby back where I come from, too.”

 

“That makes sense,” he said, as she joined him just at the threshold of the open doors. “I think it also explains _you_ fairly well, Sarah.”

 

Clasping his right hand as the mysterious figure offered it to her, Sarah laughed, wordlessly conceding the point. As the two of them mutually pulled each other from the plane, falling through the silent air and music, Sarah kick-flipped so that her feet – now strapped to the snowboard beneath her – pointed toward the ground far below them.

 

“You know, this actually _is_ kind of fun,” the mysterious figure said, laughter in his voice as the two of them continued their descent. “It’s almost like flying!”

 

“I know!” she called back, as the music swelled around them, and she swung her body around to send herself into a controlled spin.

 

It was kind of strange, not hearing – or even _feeling_ – the loud rush of the wind as it blew past her, but at the same time it served to remind her of the sheer unreality of her current situation. It was a lot like the music she kept hearing, really.

 

When the current song began to wrap up, Sarah mentally prepared herself for the awakening – possibly a rude one; there was no real way of knowing, given how much she had already changed things – that she was sure was soon to follow.

 

When the mysterious figure clasped her hand again, the two of them falling together as the last strains of “Diamond in the Sky” played out around them, Sarah looked over at him and could have almost sworn that he was smiling at her.

 

“Thanks, Sarah; this has all been really special to me. Even if you _do_ forget about me later, I know that I won’t ever forget about you.” He tilted his head slightly, and Sarah had the very clear impression of his smile widening. “So, since you showed me something that was special to you, I’ll show you something that feels special to me.”

 

The music around them swelled again, but it was a very different song that began to play. As the landscape beneath them changed from your standard-issue empty grassland that always seemed to be used as the skydivers’ go-to LZ into a small trio of islands, and grew several times closer on top of that, Sarah chuckled softly. It almost figured that the Destiny Islands would show up again, somehow.

 

_-Grew up in a small town, and when the rain would fall down, I’d just stare out my window.-_

The two of them surfed the remaining distance to the main island, their snowboards kicking up rooster-tails on the formerly placid water.

 

_-Dreaming of what could be, and if I’d end up happy; I would pray.-­_

 

They walked beside a row of palm trees, back out to the old plank bridge that she had crossed sometime earlier back in the outside – she hesitated to say real, since while that place was certainly _a_ reality, it wasn’t _her_ reality – world.

 

_­-Trying hard to reach out, but when I tried to speak out, felt like no one could hear me.-_

 

Standing for a few moments on the tiny islet that she had really only been to once, Sarah was faintly surprised when the mysterious figure took her right hand in a gentle grip and settled his own right hand on her left hip. Mimicking his actions with a certain amount of amusement for what she now knew he was about to do, Sarah took a moment to be profoundly grateful that this was all just a dream; ballroom dancing was _not_ her forte.

 

­ _-Wanted to belong here, but something felt so wrong here, so I pray, I could break away; I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly, I’ll do what it takes till I touch the sky.-_

 

The two of them traded roles, her leading for a few rounds as the mysterious figure leaned in closer; his entire bearing spoke of loneliness, so for his sake Sarah smiled as they danced.

 

_-Now make a wish, take a chance, make a change, and break away. Out of the darkness and into the sun, but I won’t forget all the ones that I love; I’ll take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and break away.-_

 

He was leading again, his blank, featureless helmet allowing no reflections, but even in spite of that, Sarah could almost swear that he was smiling. Maybe he was.

 

_-Want to feel the warm breeze, sleep under a palm tree, feel the rush of the ocean. Get onboard a fast train, travel on a jet plane, far away.-_

 

The landscape around them blurred slightly as they spun around one another in the dance.

 

_-And break away; I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly, I’ll do what it takes till I touch the sky; now make a wish, take a chance, make a change, and break away.-_

 

When the mysterious figure took her hands, holding them with the same gentleness that he had displayed while the two of them had been dancing, Sarah smiled wider; she didn’t quite know what he was planning, but she knew at least enough to know that she didn’t have to worry.

 

_-Out of the darkness and into the sun, I won’t forget all the ones that I love. I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and break away.-_

The mysterious figure swung her around again, giving Sarah another nearly complete view of the small islet they were dancing on.

 

“Buildings with a hundred floors, swinging ‘round revolving doors; maybe I don’t know where they’ll take me, but gotta keep moving on. Moving on. Fly away. Breakaway,” the mysterious figure sang, as he continued to lead her through the dance. “I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly,” the mysterious figure continued, leaning his head against her collarbone. “Though it’s not easy to tell you goodbye,” he straightened up and continued, though he held her a bit closer than before. “Gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and break away. Out of the darkness and into the sun, but I won’t forget the place I come from.” He pulled her closer, moving more slowly as the song came to a close. “I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and break away.” He moved closer, slowing the dance until the two of them were barely moving at all. “Breakaway,” he held her close, the two of them no longer moving at all, and his head resting on her collarbone again. “Break away.”

 

The dream-world fell silent as the song ended, and then the world itself began to fade to black as the dream that they had met in ended at last.

 

However, when the world around her was as dark as the space underneath her blankets when she slept, Sarah heard the mysterious voice speak for a last time: “Abandon your fear; look forward.”

 

Sarah thought that she had to have smiled. “Go forward; never stand still.”

 

“Retreat and you age.”

 

As she began to register physical sensations again, and just before she could be forced by her own body to acknowledge them, Sarah spoke the last words of the oath; the promise that had tied two others together, though not in circumstances quite like this: “Hesitate and you die.”


	11. Scrappers

She awoke to the feel of someone kicking her foot – Sora’s foot, rather – and for a moment Sarah was sorely tempted to pitch a dirt-clod at the head of whoever was responsible. She doubted that that was something that Sora would do, however, and she’d been slipping out of character enough times that she was pretty sure Kairi was starting to have suspicions, so she decided to hold off on doing anything else that was blatantly un-Sora-like. At least to the best of her ability, and while she was around those people that knew him.

 

She couldn’t count on _everyone_ having Riku’s brand of aggressive tunnel-vision, after all.

 

“All right, all right, I’m up,” she said, sitting back upright and opening her eyes in almost one, smooth motion.

 

The ones standing in front of her weren’t those that she had first expected, but when she had regained some of her faculties after her long nap, she realized that she should have probably figured that these three guys would be the ones to show up.

 

“Hey, Sora, you finally awake?” Tidus called, as she yawned.

 

“Yeah, I’m up,” she said, running her hands through Sora’s hair in an – most likely futile, but whatever – effort to bring order to that sheer chaos.

 

“Great!” Tidus exclaimed, grabbing “her” raised right hand and pulling “her” along until they reached the open patch of sand by the docks where these particular fights had taken place in-game. “Now that Kairi doesn’t have you running all over the place collecting stuff, we can finally have that match of ours,” the boy said enthusiastically, smiling as Selphie tossed “her” wooden sword over to Sarah. “Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you!” he called, still grinning widely.

 

“Likewise,” she said, smiling back as she saluted him with the sword in “her” right hand.

 

His first strike was aimed at her wrists, a good strategy but easy enough to dodge that she did so mostly on reflex. His next was aimed low, trying to take out her ankles; she jumped quickly over that one. Still, the fact that the kid was using tactics that she herself would often employ – not to mention the fact that he wasn’t an arrogant little bastard like Riku – was worthy of a fair bit of respect as far as she was concerned.

 

With that in mind, Sarah decided to forgo both the verbal and non-verbal combat taunts that she sometimes employed. She would win this fight with her own physical strength; there would be plenty of times when she would be able to psych out her enemies. Like the other times she was going to end up tangling with Riku, for instance.

 

Besides, she was making an effort to act more “Sora-like”, and Sora had never been one for taunting his enemies while he was fighting; or anytime at all, really.

 

Blocking another strike with the flat of her wooden sword, Sarah spotted an opening in her opponent’s defense. Not knowing if it was deliberate or not, Sarah circled slowly to the left, blocking an overhead strike as she did so. The opening was still there, and more than that, Tidus didn’t seem to be aware of it. At the same time, it didn’t seem like calculated indifference; like something meant to lure her into committing to an attack so that Tidus could counter it or be in a position to unleash some manner of unpleasant surprise on her.

 

It _did_ genuinely seem like Tidus was completely unaware of the opening he’d left for her or anyone else to take advantage of.

 

A single one of his strikes slipped through her guard, and Sarah shifted to take the blow on her left shoulder. It was a small price to pay. Ducking a wide sweep from Tidus’ staff, Sarah swept her wooden sword forward and into Tidus’ gut. Following swiftly on the heels of her initial attack, Sarah slammed the blunt tip of her sword into the same point that she had just tagged with the side of the “blade” and Tidus went down.

 

Just before she could deliver the final blow, however, she noticed that Tidus was actually _laughing_.

 

“Wow, Sora,” the boy said, rising back to his feet with his left hand over his stomach. “I think that’s the fastest that anyone’s _ever_ managed to beat me.” He’d stopped laughing by the time he said that, of course, but his wide grin was still in place. “Can I be on your side, next time?”

 

“Sure,” she said, relaxing her stance and letting her sword rest point-down on the sand.

 

“Great!” Tidus exclaimed, rushing over to her side almost before Sarah had finished speaking. “All right!” he exclaimed, taking a combat-stance next to her; staff held out like he was ready for trouble. “This time, Sora and I will take you _both_ on!”

 

With a brief shrug and a mental “what the hell”, Sarah raised her wooden sword and retook her own battle-stance.

 

“All right, then,” Wakka said, smirking as he tossed his ball into the air and caught it again. “But don’t expect _us_ to go easy on _you_ , either, mon!”

 

“Yeah!” Selphie exclaimed, cracking her jump rope like it was an actual whip. “We’re going to win!”

 

“The loser gets the drinks, while the winner sits and rests,” she said, the battle-happy smiles on the three kids surrounding her having reminded Sarah of one of her favorite animes. “If you hold back, I’ll pound you!” she finished enthusiastically, grinning and dramatically pointing her wooden sword at her self-chosen opponents.

 

All of them laughed, as she smiled widely at them.

 

“You know, I think that’s actually a pretty good idea,” Tidus said, once he’d managed to regain his composure. “All right: losers get the coconuts, while the winners sit and rest,” he said, grinning as he moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her, just opposite Wakka.

 

Which, of course, left Sarah herself facing Selphie; something that she couldn’t help but find incredibly amusing. _Is this the Designated Girl Fight, I wonder?_

 

“If you hold back, we’ll pound you!” Wakka returned, bringing Sarah’s attention back to the present moment.

 

Back to the fight that had just begun.

 

Selphie was on her seconds after Wakka had made that little declaration of his, and as she deflected what seemed like a probing-strike from the other girl’s jump rope, Sarah’s mind went into analysis mode even as her combat-instincts surged to the fore, countering or evading the younger girl’s attacks.

 

She had some advantages in this fight, having already gotten a taste of Selphie’s fighting-style while she had been playing through the Destiny Islands-centric parts of KH1. Still, the advantage wasn’t as great as some people might have thought: none of the enemies in-game could be disarmed, and not even the greatest of video game AIs could react to a changing combat situation with the same fluidity and unpredictability as a human. Not to mention the limited, hence limiting, moveset that all video game characters had.

 

Still, just because her experience with Selphie in PS2-sprite form wasn’t comprehensive enough to tell her _everything_ that the younger girl would try in a fight like this, that didn’t mean that she was just going to disregard it. It still provided her with _some_ basis for anticipating Selphie’s attacks, and even – to some extent – judging her fighting style.

 

Selphie had seemed to be primarily – almost exclusively, in fact – a long-range fighter, using what amounted to a light flail to keep her opponent at bay; she really hadn’t seemed to have any skill in close quarter combat at all. Anyone who could weather her strikes and close to within arm’s-reach would, therefore, gain a significant advantage. Still, there was no real need to weather your opponent’s strikes when you could just disarm them and be done with it; not unless you were trying to intimidate them into submission.

 

Grabbing the plastic handle of Selphie’s jump rope as it was flung at her head again, Sarah reeled the younger girl in by the simple expedient of twisting Selphie’s jump rope up around the arm that she wasn’t holding her wooden sword in. Selphie, not being particularly stupid, let go of her jump rope once Sarah had gotten four loops around her off-arm, and Sarah was glad for it. There was no real challenge in pounding on a stupid opponent.

 

Some amusement, yes, but no challenge.

 

Springing forward before Selphie could recover from the shock of being disarmed so thoroughly, Sarah slammed the flat of her wooden sword into the younger girl’s gut, then crouched to deliver a sweep-kick that knocked Selphie to her knees. Taking a moment to make sure that the younger girl wasn’t going to try to get up and make trouble again, Sarah turned her attention to the fight that was still going on between Wakka and Tidus.

 

It seemed to be going fairly well, though showing some signs of carrying on for longer than she would personally prefer; still, she could fix _that_ easily enough.

 

“Banzai!” she shouted, as Wakka fell to the sand with the full force of Sora’s weight bearing down on him.

 

When she looked up at Tidus, still standing there holding his wooden staff, she found him shaking slightly, and when she grinned up at him he burst out laughing. So did Selphie, and she could even feel Wakka laughing underneath her. Laughing along with the rest of them, Sarah slid off of Wakka’s back and stood up again.

 

“Well, that’s _one_ way to end a fight,” Tidus said, once he’d managed to catch his breath; he was still snickering a bit, though.

 

“Yeah, but could you try something that’s not so hard on my back, next time?” Wakka groused, rising back to his feet as he rubbed at his back as well as anyone who wasn’t double-jointed had ever been able to.

 

“Right,” she said, grinning. “I’ll keep that in mind.”


	12. Logistics

“Sora!” The sound of that familiar voice drew Sarah’s attention, and she waved to Kairi as the other girl made her way over to where the four of them were standing. There were still traces of that inscrutable look that she had worn several times during this past day, but for the most part Kairi seemed pleased to see her. “C’mon, it’s almost time to go home.”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Tidus said, sounding like Kairi’s reminder had hit home for him as well. “We should be getting back, too.” Slapping a companionable hand on “Sora’s” right shoulder, he grinned. “See you tomorrow for another round, Sora.”

 

“Yeah,” Wakka added, tossing his ball up and catching it with an ease that hinted at long practice. “This time, _I_ get to be on your side.”

 

She chuckled. “Well, I _am_ flattered by your gracious invitation, but I think I might be busy that day,” she said, tilting her head slightly in Kairi’s direction. “It’s a fairly big day for us.”

 

“Right,” Kairi said, coming over to clap Sarah on the same shoulder that Tidus once had. “A very big day for us,” she continued, wrapping both of her arms around “Sora’s” left and squeezing slightly; with anyone else, Sarah would have called that a non-verbal signal.

 

A subtle request to play along with what was going to happen next; still, this was _Kairi_ she was dealing with here. Not exactly one for subterfuge.

 

As Kairi gently steered her toward the small dock, Sarah noticed that they were the first to arrive. It was kind of interesting, she had to admit, seeing what had happened before and after – and even sometimes between – the events that she had seen in KH1. As long as you didn’t think too much about what was going to happen next; she tried not to, since that way lay madness and bludgeoning Riku to death with a frying pan.

 

“You’re not really Sora, are you?”

 

The sound of Kairi’s voice, and more than that the words that the other girl had just said to her, brought Sarah’s mind back to the present moment with a harsh, and she could have sworn almost audible, slam.

 

“Why do you say _that_ , Kairi?” she asked; the first part of damage-control, after all, was to assess how much damage you had _to_ control.

 

“I’ve known Sora for a long time,” the younger girl said, looking right into Sarah’s eyes with an intensity that she hadn’t seen in very many people. “Maybe not for all my life, the way Riku has, but long enough to know what he’s like. And you… you don’t walk like him, you don’t smile like him,” she paused for a moment, eyes roving to take in Sarah’s relaxed, open stance. “You don’t even _stand_ like him, not really. And,” she looked down for a moment before looking back up, right into Sarah’s eyes again. “You really only talk like him when you have the chance to think about what you’re saying,” she paused, glancing down for a moment before seeming to steel herself to go on. “When someone catches you off-guard… It’s like you’re a whole different person.”

 

All she could think, for those few moments with Kairi’s eyes locked on Sora’s own, was that her efforts at damage-control were well and truly fucked; and before they even began, too. That _had_ to be a new record.

 

“Have you told anyone else about this?” she asked, wanting to know if there was any part of this situation she could salvage, and a bit morbidly curious about just how fucked she actually was.

 

“No, I haven’t,” Kairi said, looking a bit more certain than she had been when she had first confronted Sarah, but also more curious.

 

“Because it would have sounded crazy, right?” she asked, chuckling as she tilted her head slightly.

 

“Is that why _you_ didn’t tell anyone?” Kairi returned, the expression on her face beginning to smooth out into relief, though she still looked curious.

 

Moreso than ever, now.

 

Sarah laughed softly. “Provided that everyone _didn’t_ think that I was pulling some kind of elaborate joke on all of them, I’d be bundled up into a straight-jacket and tossed into the nearest crazy house so fast you’d probably think I was in a time-warp,” her chuckle was a bit harsher this time. “So yeah; good reason _not_ to tell anyone what’s going on with me. And that’s probably the best I could hope for, if someone actually believes all of this.” Sarah looked down at Sora’s hands, trying not to feel the complete and utter _wrongness_ of her current body; if her and Sora’s situations truly _were_ reversed the way that she’d once thought, she could only hope that he was doing all right. “There are times even _I_ don’t believe it.”

 

A hand on “her” right shoulder brought Sarah’s attention back to the present moment; back to Kairi and the Destiny Islands, and all the problems therein.

 

“I’m sorry.” Were the first words out of the younger girl’s mouth. “I didn’t think about hard this would be on you. I worried so much about Sora that I didn’t even _think_ -”

 

“It’s all right,” she said, putting “her” hand on Kairi’s shoulder in turn. “Sora’s your friend, you said you’ve known him since the two of you were kids.” She smiled, squeezing Kairi’s shoulder softly to put the younger girl at ease. “It’s only natural that you’d be concerned for him before you’d worry about someone you don’t know from Eve.” Seeing that the self-recrimination on Kairi’s face hadn’t diminished one bit, Sarah decided to change the subject somewhat. “Really, I’m kind of impressed.”

 

“By what?” Kairi asked, looking back up at Sarah, but still seeming pretty down on herself.

 

Sarah didn’t know if what she was going to say would make the younger girl feel better or not, but she was going to say it nonetheless. “I don’t think that most people would have been able to spot that I was acting a bit off,” she said, thinking back on all of the other people that she had met during the course of this day. “Or, that I was _acting_ at all. Even if they did, most of them would have just shrugged it off as something normal; like someone having an off day or something. If they didn’t just brush it off as themselves seeing things, anyway,” she laughed softly, reflectively. “Most people aren’t very honest with themselves.” When Sarah turned her attention back to Kairi, she found that the younger girl was giving her a once-over, and didn’t seem quite sure what to do next. “Sorry,” she said, tilting her head and giving the younger girl her best reassuring smile. “Went off on a tangent, there.”

 

“No, it’s just…” Kairi shook her head, then looked back up and into “Sora’s” eyes with such a profound expression of honest worry that it was all Sarah could do not to wince in sympathy. “It you’re _here_ , then where is Sora?”

 

 _Ah, that_ is _the million-dollar question,_ Sarah mused, huffing softly. And really, what could she say in response to that? What did she, honestly, have to offer? Conjecture? Speculation? A random, wild guess that, when this – whatever the hell it was – had happened, Sora’s consciousness had swapped places with her own instead of being displaced and flung out into the cosmos; or, worse yet, overwritten?

 

“I… honestly have no idea,” she said, then had to laugh in rueful acknowledgement. “I really don’t have much experience with this kind of thing, I have to admit.”

 

Kairi wasn’t laughing, of course, since it was _her_ friend’s life that was potentially on the line here, but she _did_ seem to be making the effort to smile; if only just for Sarah’s sake.

 

“Sorry,” she said, not wanting the younger girl to feel like she had to keep up appearances at a time like this. “When things start going weird on me – particularly _this_ weird – the only thing I figure I can really do is to laugh at them; panicking never really helped anyone, after all. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

 

“No, it’s all right,” Kairi said, glancing down briefly before turning a more genuine smile on her. “I keep forgetting that this is all as strange to you as it is to me,” Kairi looked to the side, her expression sheepish. “I keep forgetting to consider _your_ feelings, and I’m sorry for that.”

 

“It’s not a problem,” she said for the second time that day. “You’re worried about your friend; anyone in the words would feel the same.” She continued to smile, more for Kairi’s sake than her own at this point.

 

“Thanks,” the girl in question said, smiling a bit, but still looking like she didn’t quite know what to do or say.

 

Sarah could definitely understand the sentiment.

 

“So, I’m guessing you have some questions,” she prompted, smiling wryly at the expression on Kairi’s face.

 

“Maybe,” the younger girl said, the expression on her face turning solemn again; almost sad, really. “But, there’s only one that’s really important: is Sora all right?”

 

 _Sure, go straight for the unanswerable one,_ Sarah mused with a sigh; she didn’t _say_ it of course, blunt as she was Sarah tried not to be insensitive, but it was still the first thought that came to her mind. “I don’t really know,” she confessed; sure, comforting lies had their place, but that wasn’t what Kairi had asked for. “Really, there’s no way for me _to_ know, I don’t think. He could be anywhere, really,” she said, turning her gaze slightly to take in the vast ocean and the waves that Kairi stood with her back to; these islands really _were_ beautiful, even rendered in PS2 graphics they’d looked good. And she was dodging the issue. “I could just be possessing him; which would be strange enough, let me tell you,” she took a short breath, ran “her” tongue over “her” top row of teeth, and pressed on; like any uncomfortable thing that had to be done, best she got this over with quickly. “I could have forced his consciousness out of his body when I ended up here, so he could be drifting un-anchored in the cosmos somewhere. Or-” the sensation or something – rather, _several_ somethings – digging into “her” lower-arms, just above “her” wrists, brought Sarah’s attention back to the present moment from where it had apparently strayed.

 

The expression on the younger girl’s face was more determined than any of those that she had worn during any of the games that Sarah had played; as if through sheer force of will – force of _belief_ – she could change reality itself. Maybe she could; it wouldn’t have been the first time that Sarah had had something that she could have sworn was impossible actually happen.

 

It would have been the second, actually.

 

“No,” Kairi said, the pressure of her fingertips as they dug into “Sarah’s” lower-arms adding a certain – and certainly painful – counterpoint to the other girl’s voice and the expression on her face. “It wasn’t anything like that.”

 

She would have asked how the younger girl could be sure of herself and what she was saying, but that would have been completely insensitive. Besides, it was blatantly obvious – from both the tone of her voice and the expression on her face – that Kairi _wasn’t_ sure of herself or what she was saying. Desperately trying to convince herself, yes, but she wasn’t sure because _no one_ could be sure under these kind of circumstances; no one could really know for sure what had happened to Sora, and Kairi knew this.

 

That was what was hurting her so much, and that was why Sarah wasn’t going to say anything further on the matter until or unless the younger girl asked.

 

Besides that, she made it a point never to practice psychological warfare on anyone who wasn’t her enemy.

 

“Right,” she said, smiling for the other girl’s sake. “He’s probably a bit freaked out – you know, being stuck in my body and all – but my father and my brothers are most likely helping him settle in.”

 

“Yeah,” Kairi said, not looking convinced so much as she looked like she wanted to _be_ convinced; or that she was trying to convince herself. “Thank you,” she continued, after a few moments of contemplative silence. Then, with hardly any warning at all, Kairi leaned forward, wrapping her slender arms around “Sora”. “And, I’m sorry that you had to get stranded so far from home like this. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to help you get back home.”

 

She chuckled softly, touched by the offer and the obvious sentiment behind it. “Thanks,” she said, wrapping “her” left arm around the younger girl’s upper-back. Then, remembering what was going to happen only a day hence, Sarah sighed. “And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

 

“For what?” Kairi asked, looking back up from where she’d had her chin leaned up against Sora’s right shoulder.

 

Sarah chuckled softly, but more bitterly than she had since first coming to this world. “For not being fast enough.”

 

Kairi obviously didn’t understand the admittedly cryptic reference that Sarah was making toward future events, and the end of the world in particular, but that was probably for the best; no sense having _two_ people stuck wondering whether the future was immutable or not.

 

“We should probably head for the dock,” she said, when Kairi didn’t seem inclined to break the silence. “Riku might already be there waiting for us.”

 

Best not to get _too_ off-track with regards to in-game events; dense as Riku could be at times, even _he_ wasn’t _completely_ stupid.

 

“All right,” Kairi said, seeming a bit dubious but still willing to follow Sarah’s lead.

 

As the two of them separated from their impromptu embrace, Kairi took “Sarah’s” right hand and gently began to tug “her” forward. Sarah was glad for the help; the geography of this particular island was more than a little fuzzy in her head – most of the transitions between scenes had been cross-fades, and there hadn’t been a flyover to take in the whole island at once that she could clearly recall at the moment – and Sarah would have been the first to admit that she had been a bit too preoccupied with other matters to take much note of her surroundings this first day. Any of her various senseis would have kicked her ass for that kind of a lapse if they’d been here to see it.

 

Hell, Big Mack himself would have been first in line for that if he could have somehow seen what she’d been doing for the first part of her first day here; hell, he’d have probably had her running that junior-SERE course he’d set up with the help of some of his buddies from the service until she felt like all of her limbs were about to spontaneously detach.

 

Resisting the urge to shudder at the thought, since it was entirely likely that Kairi would feel it and hence start wondering what else was going on, Sarah turned her attention to studying the island itself. Not for the sake of having a terrain-advantage in future fights – no, _that_ would go straight down the shitter when Darkside showed up and the entire island started coming apart like wet tissue-paper along with the whole planet that it was a part of - but simply so she could get her bearings and not keep feeling so damned _lost_ all the time.

 

The first thing that she noticed was that they weren’t heading toward the dock, but instead back to the tiny islet that she had already been to twice – though admittedly one of those times _had_ been just a dream – and Sarah found that she couldn’t quite recall if this was something that had happened in-game, or if this was somehow a product of her interference; it _had_ been some time since she had played this particular game.

 

When Riku saw the two of them approaching, Kairi still holding “her” right hand as they made their way over to the tree he was leaning against, his eyes seemed to pass right over the other girl – pausing only to take in “her” and Kairi’s linked hands – and lock right onto “Sora”. Biting back a smirk at the pouty look on his face when their eyes briefly met – he was obviously still pissed about the way she’d thrashed him up, down, and sideways when they had met in combat that one time – he clearly wasn’t too happy to see them like that. She was _so_ tempted to smirk at him, or wink, or offer the kid a cheerfully-mocking wave – KH1!Riku being so amusingly easy to rile up and all – but Sarah restrained herself; oblivious Riku might have been, but even a completely stupid person could eventually come to suspect that _something_ was going on, if they were presented with enough evidence.

 

“So, what were you two doing?” Riku asked, trying to sound nonchalant and failing miserably considering what Sarah already knew about him.

 

“We were talking,” she said, considering and then dismissing the idea of needling him about that.

 

Kairi already had her pegged, and while she was fairly okay with the other girl knowing that particular secret, being found out by someone as oblivious as _Riku_ would be an insult to her skills as an actress.

 

“What were you talking about?” Riku asked, still watching Sarah as if he could figure out all of her secrets if he just looked hard enough; fat chance.

 

“The raft; we’re going to need a lot of supplies if we’re going to be sailing into possibly-uncharted territory, the way it seems we’re planning to.” That was always the one thing that had irritated her about this part of the game, no matter how many times she reminded herself that it was just a Disney game and so she shouldn’t hold it to any particularly high standards: the almost complete lack of attention to logistics was a real pebble in her shoe whenever the relevant scenes had come up.

 

Sure, the three of them had just been kids, probably  a lot younger than her, and depending on where they lived they may have never been camping before; but, if it hadn’t been for the whole world-shattering Kaboom, and the preceding Heartless invasion, Sarah had very few doubts that the three of them would have starved to death en rout to whatever they thought their destination was. If they didn’t get caught up in a tropical storm and capsized, anyway.

 

“Really? Like what?” Riku asked, and for once he seemed completely focused on an important issue.

 

Sarah decided to make use of Riku’s complete focus while she had it; no telling how long it would last.

 

“Fishing tackle, for one; no telling how long we’re going to be at sea,” she said, in spite of the fact that she knew damn well that none of them were going to be leaving this island by raft; by other means, yes, but the raft was pretty much just a footnote in their collective story. “So, there’s no way to plan out just how many days’ worth of food we’re going to need.”

 

Riku’s jaw worked a bit, like he was either about to say something or just chewing on the inside of his lip while he was deep in thought. “Yeah, good point,” he said, his expression far-off and thoughtful in a way that she had never seen on him before. “I think my dad might have some fishing stuff we could use.”

 

“Can you see if you could get him to lend it to us?” she asked, pleased that she had managed to get him to take what she was saying seriously so quickly. “I know he won’t be too happy about the whole “borrowing indefinitely” part, but we’re going to need that stuff if we’re going to have any chance of getting more food after our initial supplies run out.”

 

“No problem, Sora,” Riku said, that confident expression that he always seemed to wear appearing on his face again. “I just won’t tell him how long I want it for. I mean, what’s he going to do once we get underway? Come after the raft so he can ground me?”

 

Sharing in Riku’s clear amusement at the idea of his heretofore-unseen father making any sort of appearance on their adventure – strange as it was going to turn out – Sarah chuckled right along with him. “Good point.”

 

“You shouldn’t be so eager to lie to your dad like that,” Kairi said, the disapproving look on her face switching from Riku to Sarah herself in the space of about half a second. “And _you_ shouldn’t be encouraging him, Sora.”

 

The slight emphasis that Kairi placed on her current alias – the name of the boy whose body she was borrowing – let Sarah know that this conversation probably wasn’t one that Sora would have started on his own. But, fuck it; if she’d been stuck here by some kind of cosmic force that was beyond mortal comprehension – which, given everything that had happened and was continuing to happen, was starting to look like an honestly plausible explanation – she was at least going to make _some_ kind of an impact. If the Powers That Be had wanted _Sora_ to handle the upcoming crisis, after all, then Sarah herself wouldn’t have ended up getting sucked into her PS2 at the beginning of all this.

 

And, sweet fricking hell, that was weird to even _think_ about.

 

“Technically, it’s not a lie. Well, strictly speaking,” Sarah said, as both Riku and Kairi turned to stare at her with curiosity – in Riku’s case – and disapproval.

 

“How can you _say_ that?” Kairi demanded. “How can something that’s not true _not_ be a lie?”

 

 _Well, time for an object lesson,_ she mused. “Riku, what if I told you that there was an uncharted island with incredible treasure; not just more money than you would be able to spend in five lifetimes, but a lamp with a friendly genie inside that would grant you any five wishes you could think up?” she asked, watching the expression on Riku’s face change from curiosity to avarice as she described this hypothetical island; clearly this lesson had been insufficiently demonstrated in the past, so she’d have to be a bit pointed with Riku now.

 

“I’d ask what direction this island of yours was in, and how far I’d need to sail to get to it,” the silver-haired boy said, smirking.

 

Sarah answered with one of her own. “And then? What if, when you got there, you found that the island was surrounded by jagged rocks, sharp enough to reduce even the strongest boat to splinters and broken planks? And, what if you found out that there was a riptide so strong, that – even if it _didn’t_ drag you to the bottom of the ocean and drown you – would smash your unprotected body against those rocks until there was nothing left of you but shredded meat and bone-chips? What would you say then?” she asked, light and quiet in the suddenly echoing silence.

 

“What?! But that- that would be a dirty trick,” Riku said, his fingers still twitching as if he wanted to clench his fists but he couldn’t decide who – if anyone – he was really angry at.

 

“Why? Would you have asked about it?” she asked, raising “her” eyebrows in exaggerated – but not entirely feigned – curiosity. “Would you have even thought to wonder why a place with such an obvious attraction remains uncharted? Why no one wanted to put it on a map? Why it would even be there in the first place, if it was something so enticing and wonderful that everyone would want to get their hands on it?”

 

Riku had fallen completely silent now, jaw working like he _wanted_ to say something, but lips closed as if he couldn’t quite figure out what that was. She chuckled. “You’ve never seen a mouse trap before, have you, Riku?”

 

“What does _that_ have to do with anything?” Riku asked, looking a bit startled but covering it after a few seconds.

 

“You’ve never seen the trigger-mechanism; the way it’s set up to hold out a piece of food, just in front of a high-tension bar designed to snap closed when the trigger holding the food is disturbed too much.”

 

“I still don’t see why you’re telling me-”

 

“It breaks their necks, Riku,” she verbally steamrolled. “You see, a mouse is not typically equipped with the self-awareness necessary to stop and assess a potentially dangerous situation; you are, so I suggest your keep that in mind.”

 

“Sora, what-”

 

“Nothing is ever truly free; anyone why tries to tell you otherwise is either naïve, using you, or trying to sell you something. Try to keep that in mind, will you?”

 

There, that was as close as she could come to outright telling Riku that he was going to become the patsy of an evil fairy with ambitions at being a Multiversal Conqueror – which she was inevitably going to fail at, since if she ever made it to the Marvel universe, Dormammumu would eat her alive, and if she tried anything in DC comics or any of its various offshoots, Darksied would be all over her; to say nothing of the kind of mess Maleficent would get herself into if she tried to challenge any of the Chaos Big Four from the Warhammer 40k ‘verse – without everyone here thinking she had _completely_ lost her mind. Still, if she managed to actually get Riku to _think_ about the consequences of his actions rather than just reacting all the time, then she would be satisfied.

 

It would at least give him a better shot at throwing off Maleficent’s influence _before_ “Ansem” body-snatched him.

 

“Sora, I don’t think,” Kairi began, before sighing and cutting herself off. “Why don’t we go back to talking about the raft? What else so you think we’ll need, Sora?”

 

The subtle emphasis that the younger girl put on Sarah’s currently assumed name, combined with the rather pointed look the younger girl was giving her – with the expression of complete and utter “what the fuck?” that Riku was wearing providing a rather amusing contrast, particularly since the two of them were standing so close together – let Sarah know that she and Kairi would likely be having some sort of a Serious Talk at some point in the not-too-distant future. For now, however, she had camping advice to a pair of people who had clearly never been camping before in their lives; how fun.

 

“We’re going to need something to sleep on; sleeping bags if we can manage it, blankets and quilts if we can’t, and either way we’re going to need pillows. After all, it’s not like we’re going to be able to check into a hotel and use their beds, at least not without any money.”

 

“Maybe we should bring some along, then,” Riku said, clearly having gotten over his brain-lock at what she had said to him; time would tell if he actually listened, but that was an important first step all the same. “Just is case we _do_ find a hotel over there, or at least a supermarket.”

 

“Yes, and maybe we should bring some hunting gear along so we’ll have something to trade if we run into fur trappers,” she said, in that dry, deadpan tone she always reserved for when she was being particularly sarcastic.

 

Naturally, Riku didn’t pick up on a bit of it. “Yeah, that’s a good idea; I’ll see what I can get from my dad,” Riku looked back up, his calculating expression fading to a slightly sheepish one. “I’m going to have to wait until we actually have the raft ready to set sail before I can actually get it out here; no _way_ is my dad going to let me borrow his hunting rifle, even if I _do_ get him to lend me those three fishing poles.”

 

“Your dad has a hunting rifle?” Kairi asked, just before Sarah could articulate that selfsame question.

 

Though really, she was more amused by the sheer incongruity of something so deadly as a rifle – she wondered for a moment what brand of rifle it was, if brands here were somehow the same as in her world, and just where Riku’s father had managed to obtain a firearm in the first place – in a world as comparatively gentle as KH1.

 

“Yeah, my dad likes to go off on hunting trips when he has the time off from work,” Riku said, adopting a thoughtful, reflective expression. “He says that it’s nice to remind himself that he’s still alive when he gets out of the office,” Riku paused for a moment, seeming to marshal his thoughts. “I don’t really know what he means, but he always sounds happy when he says that.”

 

Sarah could guess what the man in question had been getting at, even though they had never met, and weren’t likely to do so in the future; even if you _were_ doing a job that you honestly loved – like she was, or like the guys at Channel Awesome who employed her for some of their more elaborate physical effects – it was still nice to take the time to do something more physical, just to do something that was completely outside of your normal routine.

 

Didn’t matter of it was hunting, sky-diving, B.A.S.E. jumping, or something entirely different, just so long as it was something you didn’t spend all of your time on during day-to-day life.

 

Though she, personally, preferred a crossbow when she went out hunting; since they were quieter than rifles, and a bolt was a hell of a lot easier to remove from a carcass than a rifle bullet. Still, at least Riku’s father, whoever the hell _he_ was, didn’t hunt with a _shotgun_ ; she’d never been able to take anyone who hunted with a shotgun seriously. And, at least the world was going to explode before she would be forced to explain the finer points of gun safety to someone who could – charitably – be considered rather impulsive.

 

“All right,” she said, once it had become obvious that no one else was going to continue the conversation. “So, we’ll have the option to fish or to hunt after we get away from civilization, the means to shop or trade if we meet up with other people, and a warm place to sleep when we get tired,” she listed off, more for her own benefit than either of theirs; if there was anything that this expedition of theirs was missing, she was the one most likely to spot it. “Ah, we’ll also need something to cook with, if we don’t want to be stuck eating raw food all the time,” she mused, chewing “her” lower lip thoughtfully.

 

“Can’t we just cook things over a fire?” Riku asked, sounding curious and slightly dismissive.

 

“Sure, if all you’re thinking about is catching fish,” she retorted, smirking. “And, somehow I doubt you’d enjoy the prospect of shoving raw, bloody meat chunks onto skewers when you inevitably got tired of eating fish all the time.”

 

“Sora, that’s gross,” Riku said, a smirk starting to show on his face, too.

 

“That doesn’t make it any less true,” she returned, half-closing “her” eyes in amusement at Riku’s antics.

 

“All right, that’s enough teasing, you two,” Kairi said, firmly interposing herself between the two of them. “Anyway, it’s getting really late; we should start heading home.”

 

When Kairi finished that sentence, she had been turned slightly more toward Riku, having once glanced at “Sora” before looking to the silver-haired boy, probably as a compromise owing to the fact that she couldn’t look both of them in the eye at once. However, as soon as she had said those two last, little words, the younger girl winced, looking back at Sarah with an easily readable expression of mixed guilt and remorse on her face. Sarah, for her part, didn’t have to waste time guessing the reason for that.

 

Clapping Kairi on the right shoulder, with a smile to show that there weren’t any hard feelings for the other girl’s perceived insensitivity, Sarah shrugged. “I think we’ve about covered everything we need for this trip, so let’s head back now. Just don’t forget what we talked about, you two,” she said, though she was speaking more for Riku’s benefit than for Kairi’s.

 

He wasn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box, and he was impulsive enough that it almost didn’t matter if he was, so best to remind him as gently as she could.

 

“Don’t worry, Sora,” Riku said, cocky smirk in place once again. “I’ll make sure we have everything we need; just leave it to me.”

 

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said, grinning in spite of the fact that she fully intended to pack her own travel bag.

 

Not for some rafting/camping trip that was never actually going to happen, but for the hotel she was going to be staying in during the times when she wasn’t exploring Traverse Town or traveling between worlds with Donald and Goofy. She’d already begun to compose a list of supplies in her head, one that she would commit to paper before she went to bed tonight, while the three of them were making their way back to the boats they had come here on.

 

And, as first Riku and then Kairi and then she all launched their small craft into the open water, Sarah continued to hold her list in the back of her mind.

 

She’d already done this once before, and she still had Sora’s muscle-memory to fall back on; besides, as unlikely as it was considering her previous experience with such, it _was_ possible that she had forgotten something during her initial list making.

 

By the time the three of them had made landfall again, the sun had started to set in earnest and Sarah had remembered an essential part of any travel-pack, particularly when one was going to be heading into contested, hostile territory: a First Aid kit. She would probably have to build one herself, since it wasn’t like she could go buy one in the limited time she had to work with, and she wasn’t going to take Sora’s family’s even if they _had_ one. It would take a bit more time and effort to assemble one from scratch than just using a pre-made kit, but if it turned out that Sora’s family _didn’t_ have one, she would still have one of her own.

 

“Sora, would you mind walking me home?” Kairi asked, bringing Sarah’s attention back to her present circumstances once more.

 

Climbing up and out of the boat she’d still been sitting in, Sarah ran “her” hands through “her” hair as she stretched “her” legs. “All right, Kairi. If you really want me to.”

 

“I do,” the other girl said, giving her a “this is very important” look.

 

“Just make sure you don’t space out during the trip _there_ , Sora,” Riku said, smirking at the pair of them. “Otherwise you’ll _both_ end up getting lost.”

 

He was completely oblivious to the subtext of their conversation, but in this case there was no reason for him not to be. He wasn’t being dense in this case, he was just uninformed. So, Sarah was willing to let this case slide.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she returned, smirking slightly herself. “ _You_ just keep in mind that Kairi and I are counting on you to get us those supplies. We can get the sleeping stuff on our own, but we’re counting on you for the fishing tackle.” She wasn’t going to mention the hunting rifle, and with any luck Riku would forget about it entirely; the last thing _anyone_ needed was for someone so obviously unstable to have access to such an unambiguously deadly weapon. “Don’t futz this one up, okay?”

 

“Right,” the silver-haired boy said, his smirk becoming wider and more clearly amused. “I won’t futz things up.” He chuckled. “Futz; where do you come up with these weird words, Sora?”

 

 _Better that than certain_ other _words I could have used,_ Sarah didn’t say. “It’s just a natural talent, I suppose.” She smirked.

 

“Well, if you say so,” Riku said, reaching out to muss up Sora’s hair; as if anyone could do even a bit of damage to a hairstyle that was so ridiculous to start out with.

 

“Well, if you’re done trying to fix my hair, something I don’t thing can actually be _done_ by the way, I think I should see about getting Kairi home,” she smiled easily. “The sun’s almost set, and I don’t think Kairi’s family in going to be particularly happy with me if I don’t get her home before full dark.” She grinned, waving to Riku and trying not to laugh at the “fishslapped” expression on his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Riku.”


	13. Last night, last day

_ Song list: _ _L’Arc~en~Ciel “Ready, steady, go!”; Porno Graffiti “Mellissa.”_

 

As Kairi tugged her away from the small dock – barely distinguishable from the one that she had seen on the Destiny Islands – Sarah fell into step with the other girl, waiting until they were both out of Riku’s earshot to begin what was likely to be a particularly interesting conversation.

 

“That was a good bluff; I have no idea where your house is.”

  
“You’re from another world, aren’t you?” Kairi asked, and the expression that the younger girl turned on Sarah was one of such earnest, wide-eyed curiosity that it was all she could do to keep herself from laughing at the sheer adorability of the expression.

 

“That’s been the general assumption I’ve been operating on,” she slanted a half-lidded “this is probably stupid” look at Kairi as the two of them continued on their way. “Unless you’ve actually heard of a place called California.”

 

“No, I haven’t,” Kairi said. “Is _that_ the name of your world? It’s very nice.”

 

Biting “her” tongue so she wouldn’t be tempted to laugh, Sarah couldn’t quite suppress the amused smile on “her” face. “No, California’s the name of my home state. The _planet_ I live on is called Earth; or Terra, or Chikuu, if you want to bring other languages into this,” she paused for a moment, casting back through her memory for the third language she spoke; though she would have been the first to admit that she didn’t speak _that_ one nearly as well as she did the other two. “I’d tell you the German name of my planet, but I can’t remember it off the top of my head.”

 

“Wow,” Kairi said, turning back to Sarah with an expression of wonder on her face. “Your world has _three_ different languages?”

 

Sarah laughed softly, as the two of them continued their slow walk. “Oh, there are quite a few more than just those three,” she said, reaching back to run “her” hands through “her” hair. “And no one really uses Latin in conversation anymore; it’s mostly a language for scientists, historians, and scholars.” And the 40k ‘verse, where it was known as High Gothic, but _that_ would have taken entirely too long to explain.

 

“So, your world has an entire language just for people whose job it is to study things?” the younger girl asked, seeming both amused and a bit charmed by the idea. “Do all of them learn two languages, just to be able to communicate with other people?”

 

“No, not really,” she said, pausing for a moment to consider how to explain the significance of Latin in relation to science and other areas of study. “They mostly use it for classifications and other things like that; so-called scientific names, you understand?”

 

“Yeah, I think I do,” Kairi said, then she smiled. “Your world must be an interesting place.”

 

“It definitely has its good points,” she said, as the two of them continued walking.

 

They had begun treading on distinctly familiar territory by this time, so Sarah knew that she would have to get back into her “Sora” persona soon if she didn’t want anyone else making the connections that Kairi already had.

 

“Well, good night,” Kairi said, as the two of them reached what seemed to be the halfway point between Kairi’s house and Sora’s own.

 

“Good night, Kairi,” she said, tilting her head slightly as she smiled at the younger girl.

 

Just after Kairi had turned away, when she had clearly been about to start making her way back to her own home, the younger girl turned back to face her. “Sora’s mom goes to work early during the week, so she might already be gone by the time you wake up.”

 

“That’s good to know,” she said, having been wondering on and off all day just how she would manage to prepare for her upcoming offworld journey without drawing any more attention than she clearly already had. “Thanks for keeping me posted.”

 

“You’re welcome, I guess,” Kairi said, still looking a bit confused.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said, clapping Kairi’s right shoulder as she herself turned to leave for Sora’s house.

 

“Wait,” Kairi called suddenly; Sarah paused, turning to look back over Sora’s right shoulder with a slightly raised eyebrow. An expression that she couldn’t quite read passed over the younger girl’s face, but it was gone almost as quickly as it had come, so she dismissed it almost as fast. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this since I… well, since I found out, but then we started talking about what your world was like, and then it started getting late and we needed to get back home, well _I_ needed to get back home, I know you can’t really get back home without some kind of help, and I’m really sorry about that-”

 

“You know you’re rambling, right?” she asked, smiling softly at the younger girl as she fell silent; she’d already turned to face Kairi more squarely, just to avoid getting a crick in Sora’s neck while the two of them talked.

 

“Yeah, I guess I was,” Kairi said, laughing in a way that sounded distinctly rueful. “What I meant to ask you, before we both got distracted, was what you’re name is,” the younger girl said at last.

 

“It’s Sarah; with an ‘h’,” she said, giving the specifics out of long-ingrained habit.

 

Turning to leave once more, wanting to have at least _some_ light to navigate by on her way to Sora’s house, Sarah found Kairi walking beside her once again.

 

“I thought you might want some help getting back to Sora’s house, since you’ve only been there once before,” the younger gild said, in response to Sarah’s curious expression.

 

“Decent of you; thanks,” she said, as Kairi linked her arm with Sora’s and the two of them made their way down the path to the kid’s house. Kairi laughed softly, drawing Sarah’s attention away from the list of supplies that she had been mentally compiling.

 

“It’s just, I finally understand what you meant when you told Riku that he was a syllable off when he was calling to you this morning.”

 

“Ah, so he told you about that,” she said, thinking back with some amusement on this strangest of all days, back when she’d first thought that all of this was just some kind of a dream; she’d long since dismissed that claim.

 

Dreams, even particularly vivid ones, were simply not this detailed and did _not_ last this long.

 

“That was also something I wanted to ask you,” the younger girl said, stopping in her tracks just a few feet from the front door of Sora’s house; Sarah stopped as well, not wanting to pull the younger girl off her feet, and at the same time curious about just what other question Kairi wanted to ask her. “Riku told me that you called him Kadaj, when you were still half-asleep,” the younger girl continued, and Sarah got the distinct feeling that she already knew just what the question was going to be. “He didn’t really think it meant anything, and I’m pretty sure he’s forgotten about it completely by now, but it seemed a little strange to me that Sora would say something like that.” There was a faraway expression on Kairi’s face as she spoke, but it cleared and was replaced with a gentle smile. “Then, when I realized you weren’t actually Sora, I also realized what you meant when you said that. Kadaj is one of your friends, back on your world, isn’t he.”

 

 _How to properly explain this without sounding crazy?_ Sarah mused; she didn’t even know if they _had_ fandom here on whatever planet this was, much less how those “outside” of certain fandoms – or outside of fandom itself – thought of those inside. “I guess you could say that,” she said, settling for a half-truth again.

 

“What do you mean?” Kairi asked, her expression becoming one of curiosity again.

 

“We don’t really know each other very well,” she said, deciding against explaining that Kadaj – and his “brothers” Yazoo and Loz – was a character in a franchise that she was sort of a fan of, for the interrelated reasons that it was fairly late, she was getting tired, and Sora’s mom wasn’t likely to be very happy with “him” if she stayed out here talking for too long. “Look, it’s getting late, and I’m sure your parents won’t be too happy with me if they find me keeping you out here all night,” Sarah said, having to stifle a brief yawn even as she spoke.

 

Kairi yawned outright, making the younger girl giggle while Sarah herself chuckled softly. “Okay, I guess I can see your point, Sarah.” The amusement on the younger girl’s face was short-lived, however, and was soon replaced with a soft expression that Sarah didn’t quite have time to identify before she found the younger girl hugging her tightly. “Have a good night’s sleep, Sarah. And, don’t worry: I’ll help you find your way back home,” the younger girl said, with such firm conviction that Sarah would have believed it herself if she hadn’t already known what was coming.

 

“Thanks,” she said, holding Kairi a bit tighter; she was a good kid, and while it was a shame that one of her friends was a self-absorbed prick with his head so far up his ass that he could lick his own kidneys, she was fairly sure that the only thing drowning Riku would accomplish now would be to _delay_ the coming Heartless invasion. The floodgates had already been opened, and the only option left was to close them; there was nothing for it but to make the journey. “Thanks a lot,” she said, briefly squeezing Kairi tighter before the two of them separated and Sarah made her way up the stone-lined path to Sora’s house alone.

 

Turning to wink over “her” left shoulder. She smiled slightly as Kairi waved to her, then turned her attention back to the path, making her way up to the door of the house where Sora and his family lived. Said door opened before she could even reach out for the knob, however, so Sarah tucked “her” hands back into “her” pockets and simply waited. Sora’s mom stood in the doorway, looking down at her son with an expression of parental concern that was very easy for Sarah to place.

 

“What were you doing out so late, Sora?”

 

“Sorry, Mom.” And that really did get easier to say with repetition. “Kairi and I were talking, and I kind of lost track of time.”

 

“Well, I’m glad that the two of you are such good friends, but I’d still like you to get home before it’s dark,” Sora’s mother said, wagging an admonishing finger at “him”. “You’re a growing boy, Sora; you need your sleep.”

 

 _Well, two out of three ain’t bad,_ Sarah reflected, biting the inside of “her” cheek to keep from smirking in amusement. It _had_ passed into full dark by now, and she _was_ beginning to get tired. She still had things to take care of before she could actually _go_ to sleep, yes, but that was beside the point.

 

Letting Sora’s mother guide her back to the room she had awakened in, Sarah bid the older woman goodnight and then made her way over to the desk that she hadn’t been able to see before she’d so unceremoniously arrived here. As her eyes began to adjust to the low light of the room, allowing Sarah to see the placement of objects within Sora’s room and hence to stop relying exclusively on her sense of touch to navigate, she found that there was indeed a small lamp atop the desk itself. Every desk seemed to be equipped with one of them – computer desks being the only exception in her experience – and Sarah was glad to note that this one followed the trend as well.

 

Feeling along the base, up the neck, and across the head of the lamp, Sarah soon located the switch in the center of the lamp’s rounded head. Gripping the switch so that she wouldn’t lose track of it, Sarah turned the chair around so that its back now faced the desk she stood in of, grabbed one of the spare sheets of loose-leaf paper on Sora’s desk – their whiteness still reflecting the light coming in through the windows even though it _was_ pretty pitiful – and finally turned around so that she herself was facing away from the desk and its small lamp. The comparative flood of light as she turned the lamp on _didn’t_ , therefore, hurt Sarah’s eyes quite as much as it would have if she’d actually been facing the lamp, but it did completely destroy her night-vision and leave her blinking harshly in its wake.

 

Rubbing her eyes to soothe away the slight ache caused by the sudden light, Sarah settled herself down in the chair and focused her attention back on the supply list that she had been mentally composing when she had found the time to think. The first item on the list was, of course, to assemble a First Aid kit so that she wouldn’t be forced to rely too much on expensive healing potions or MP-draining spells; and for that, she would need to gather – or make, but that was more a last resort than anything else – bandages, alcohol or some other kind of disinfectant for cleaning wounds, splints, possibly a tourniquet if she could find the materials to properly fasten one, and band-aids for anything too small for a cloth bandage.

 

Some people might have found that kind of planning excessive, probably particularly if they had played the game before, but her dad and Big Mack himself had both taught her that it was a hell of a lot better to have something and not need it than it was to need something and not have it.

 

The next item – or several items, depending on how you looked at it; though she was still going to list them as just one – was several days’ worth of clean clothes; because there was no way in hell that she was going to spend an unknown amount of days and nights without showering. The next item after that was, naturally, provisions for the journey that she was about to undertake. Perishable items to be eaten first, and then more long-lasting foods that she could take on the ship for eating while they were in transit. The next after that were backup weapons, whatever blades or bludgeons that she could lay her hands to, since she wasn’t going to make the mistake of relying exclusively on the Keyblade the way Sora had.

 

As she’d been told before, on many different occasions and by many different people including Big Mack himself: use all weapons, but trust only in yourself. You had to _be_ a weapon, to have the proper mindset, before you could expect to use any other weapon proficiently.

 

Next on the list were the various toiletries she was going to be making use of during the course of her of her journey. And last, but certainly not least by any means, was the duffel bag – or at least the very large travel bag – that she was going to take to the hotel, and the smaller pack that she was going to carry a day’s supplies in.

 

Settling back into Sora’s chair, Sarah revised the list she had made, looking for any essential items that she had missed, or anything that she might want to add. Finding nothing of the sort, Sarah got up, folded the list in half, plucked the journal she had started out of the oversized pocket of Sora’s gray shorts, tucked said list neatly inside the front cover, and then slipped the thing back inside “her” left pocket and started to undress.

 

This was the last night that she was going to have the luxury of doing so, Sarah knew, and so she was going to enjoy it while she could; on this world, at least. Flicking off Sora’s desk lamp, Sarah made her way back through the now almost-oppressive darkness back to Sora’s bed. When “her” shins made contact with the bed frame, her night-vision having been degraded enough to be almost useless at that point, Sarah removed “her” shorts and tossed the shirt she had been carrying onto the carpet. Yawning widely one last time, Sarah climbed up into the bed and made herself comfortable.

 

Sighing contentedly as she closed “her” eyes, Sarah slowly drifted off to sleep in the dark, silent confines of Sora’s room.

 

_KH1_

 

Awakened the next morning by a sense of urgency that she would have been hard-pressed to explain to anyone else who had been in the room with her, Sarah looked over at the clock. Just as she’d been expecting, it was almost a full half-hour before she’d set the alarm to go off; that was the way it always seemed to work for her: the alarm was just something to get her body to wake itself up at an appointed time, she’d never ended up actually _hearing_ the thing. Even her own iPod alarm back home, she just left on because she’d always enjoyed having music to go along with her morning routine.

 

Shutting off the alarm clock she’d found before its harsh ringing could tempt her to pitch it at the nearest wall and then straight out the window – not to mention prompting Sora’s mom to wonder just why he had set his alarm during summer vacation in the first place – Sarah climbed out of bed, ran “her” hands through “her” hair in an effort as familiar to her as it was most likely futile, and shifted to seat “herself” on the edge of Sora’s bed. Pulling the clothes that “she” had worn yesterday back on – she’d only worn them once, so they were good for at least _one_ more day of light-to-moderate activity, though she was definitely changing them when she got to Traverse Town and managed to finagle a shower – and made her way over to Sora’s closet. Sarah looked for and quickly found a backpack large enough to suit her needs while “she” and her future traveling companions were making their way from world to world on their appointed quest.

 

Scanning the racks of clothes in front of her, Sarah took a moment to recall the kind of environments that they were going to be dealing with _on_ said quest; it only took her a few moments.

 

 _All right, so: desert, jungle, what amounts to someone’s back garden gone a bit wild, a tamer version of Gotham City, someplace completely underwater, a small ship, another city, what pretty much amounts to a steampunk castle, an arena, and somewhere that I won’t really be getting to until this is pretty much all over and done with,_ she mused, tapping “her” lower lip with “her” pointer-finger the way she always tended to do when she was deep in thought or making plans. Of the environments that she, Donald, and Goofy would be facing, she really only had to worry about actual _environmental_ hazards in three of them: Agrabah, whose hot, dry environs would suck the moisture right out of you, and whose almost blinding sun reflecting off the wide expanse of sand could easily disorient you, getting you lost and dropping you dead of exposure and heat-exhaustion if you were careless, unlucky, or stupid; Deep Jungle, where it would be entirely too easy to catch a foot on one of the many vines and creepers running along the jungle floor and violently twist or break one’s ankle while battling Heartless, to say nothing of the various kinds of insect – both bloodsucking and not – that made their home in every jungle that she had ever read about back home; Hollow Bastion was going to be a bitch and a half to plan for, not because of any natural hazards – there were precious few _natural_ things in that architect’s-nightmare-designed-by-a-mad-Spark-on-LSD of an excuse for a castle – but because the very things that would actually keep her safe from myriad hazards of the environment there: climbing ropes, pitons, and harnesses for a start; were the very things that she couldn’t get without access to a fair amount of money and a sporting good store to spend it at.

 

Sarah hated that; not being able to adequately prepare for hazardous situations grated on her nerves in a way that few other things ever had or ever could; still, this was what she had to work with, so this was what she was going to use.

 

Zipping open the faded-yellow backpack that she had found in Sora’s closet, Sarah began to take out the clothes that she would need during the journey she was about to undertake. She didn’t much care what colors they were, so long as they weren’t gaudy and they didn’t clash _too_ horribly. She honestly preferred to wear darker shades or more muted tones; but, then again, she would have honestly have preferred _not to be here in the first damn place_ , so it really wasn’t like her personal preferences counted for much at the moment.

 

Riffling through Sora’s closet, Sarah came up with two pairs of long pants – useful for keeping bugs and other annoying things off of her in the jungle, or for keeping her warm in the cold desert night – a windbreaker – good for pretty much the same thing, though it wouldn’t be quite as effective at retaining heat as the long pants she’d slung over “her” left arm; or a real jacket, but she doubted that she’d have much of a chance finding one considering the climate – several pairs of shorts and short-sleeved shirts, and or all things a dark-blue hoodie. Chuckling softly at the sheer incongruity of finding something like _that_ in Sora’s closet – sure, the kid had his share of hooded outfits, but most of them had been sleeveless; however the hell _that_ had ended up working out – she decided to take it along just for the hell of it. She’d liked wearing hoodies even _before_ playing Prototype.

 

Checking Sora’s closet one last time, Sarah made sure that there wasn’t anything useful she had missed. There wasn’t, but Sarah had always believed it was better to be _over_ -prepared than the reverse. Especially considering what she knew was going to be coming tomorrow. Of course, no one in their right mind was likely to think that you _could_ be _over_ -prepared for the end of the world.

 

Moving back over to Sora’s bed, Sarah removed the clothes from “her” arm, let Sora’s backpack fall from “her” shoulder at last, and yawned briefly as she began to roll up the previously hanging clothes and pack them away in preparation for her upcoming journey.

 

Once that was finished, Sarah turned her attention to the large chest of drawers set flush against the wall midway between Sora’s bed and his closet. Making her way over to it, Sarah found that the bottom two drawers contained socks and underwear, which was in stark contrast to the one she had in her closet back at home; Sarah sometimes wondered if she was the only one to keep her own socks and underwear in the _top_ drawers rather than the bottom.

 

Picking out a variety of socks, thicker for when she would need better insulation against the cold and thinner for when she would need to pay more attention to the heat, Sarah rolled them a bit tighter so that they would take up that much less space, then made her way back over to Sora’s bed to pack them. Finishing with that task, Sarah returned to the chest of drawers, grabbed every last pair of underwear in the second-bottommost drawer with both of “her” hands, and returned to Sora’s bed and the backpack on top of it.

 

Rolling up the individual pairs and packing them away, Sarah found herself wondering once more just what kind of weapons – improvised or otherwise – she would be able to collect for herself here. Knives were the most likely; everyone she’d ever known of had a set of knives in their kitchen, bought for slicing, chopping, and peeling vegetables if they didn’t eat meat for whatever reason.

 

Maybe they wouldn’t have a set of carbon steel knives-for-all-occasions, or a bread knife large enough to double as a short sword, she’d still be able to handle cutters and peelers and steak knives well enough to make the stupid or the unwary regret ever having tangled with her.

 

Once she had finished packing the last of “her” clothes, Sarah stood up and stretched to wake herself up a bit more, and to work out the kinks that came naturally from sitting in any one position for too long. Making her way over to the door of Sora’s room, Sarah pressed “her” right ear against it and waited for a few moments. Collecting weapons, assembling medkits, and stocking provisions wasn’t really something she could really do while Sora’s mom was still kicking around the house; it being something that would have raised inconvenient questions if “she” were spotted in the process; likely enough starting with just what in the hell “she” thought “she” was doing.

 

Though perhaps not so bluntly put.

 

Still, the fact remained that if she wanted to avoid complications at this stage, then she would have to avoid Sora’s mom as well. To that end, Sarah held her silence and listened at the door for any sound indicating that Sora’s mom was still in the house with her.

 

The sound of footsteps, muffled though they were by the carpet in the hall, propelled Sarah into action. Moving quickly but quietly back down the length of Sora’s room, she shoved the kid’s backpack just far enough under the bed that no one who wasn’t actually looking for it would be able to see the thing, then quickly climbed back into Sora’s bed and pulled up his covers far enough over “her” body so that the clothes “she” was wearing wouldn’t be visible to anyone who didn’t check for them. Closing “her” eyes and relaxing as best as she could under the circumstances, Sarah found herself both pleased and rather relieved at the fact that she hadn’t yet picked out a pair of shoes to wear.

 

A few seconds later, the door to Sora’s room opened, and Sarah heard someone making their way inside.

 

Relaxing herself to the point where she probably would have been able to fool the more observant of her brothers – or even Big Mack himself, if only for a few seconds – Sarah focused on one of the meditations that a sensei whose name she couldn’t quite call to mind at the moment had taught her. Focusing her thoughts on a point just beyond what she would have been able to see if “her” eyes were still open, Sarah let herself fall further into that state of mixed awareness and not-quite-awareness even as she heard the person – most likely Sora’s mom – making their way into Sora’s room with “her”.

 

When that same someone kissed “her” softly on “her” upturned right cheek, Sarah thought that it had to have been Sora’s mom who’d come into the room with “her” – this kind of thing really did seem like more of a Mom thing than a Dad thing; at least, _her_ dad didn’t do things like that – and that supposition was only confirmed by the newcomer’s words:

 

“Have a great day, Sora honey. Your father and I will be home just as soon as we can.”

 

For a few, long moments, as Sora’s mother was making her way out of his room, Sarah found herself wondering just what she and Sora’s as-yet-unseen father did for a living; what their names were; and, out of the almost morbid sent of curiosity that she had developed regarding underdeveloped background characters in stories just like this one, what they had been thinking and doing when the sky had opened up and the world itself apart all around them.

 

Neither of them had been developed at all during the course of the one-and-a-half games in the series that she had actually played; she pretty much doubted they would be in the future, either. Their only real purpose in-game had been to show that Sora wasn’t an orphan, or else vat-grown in a factory somewhere. Hell, the both of them combined had had less of a presence in their own son’s story than Fumio Fukamachi had had in Guyver; and _he’d_ just been brought in to showcase Chronos’ true ruthlessness unleashed.

 

When Sora’s mother left, closing the door behind her the way she’d likely been taught to do by her own parents, Sarah held herself in meditation until she could at least be reasonably sure that Sora’s father wasn’t going to be adding his own goodbyes, then opened “her” eyes and stared at Sora’s door for a few, long moments.\

 

They seemed like nice enough people, or at least Sora’s mom did, so the fact that she was pretty much leaving them to their fates when the world ended didn’t sit well with her at all. Still, it wasn’t as if there was anything she could really _do_ about that. They weren’t likely to take a letter from a mysterious, otherworldly benefactor seriously; anything she _said_ would sound completely pants-on-head crazy without some kind of extraordinary proof to back up “her” story. And, by the time she got her hands on the Keyblade, this world was pretty much done for.

 

And, any way you looked at it, she had no one to vouch for her story in any case.

 

Frustrating as it was not to be able to help people who’d shown her such hospitality, even if they hadn’t ultimately known what they were doing, it looked like she was going to have to leave Sora’s parents to their fate. She hated that thought, but unfortunately hating something wasn’t likely to make it any less true. Not even here, in a place where magic was a fundamental force of the universe.

 

Levering herself up and out of Sora’s bed for the second and last time, Sarah yanked the backpack back out from under it and slung the thing over “her” right shoulder. There were a lot of things that she was going to have to do today if she wanted to be prepared for tomorrow; best she got to them quickly. _First things first, of course_ , she mused, shifting her course so that she was headed for the bathroom.

 

There was bound to be a closet nearby that she could raid for the supplies necessary to construct her First Aid kit. And if not, then she would probably at least find it somewhere in the general vicinity. Linen closets always seemed to be close to the bathroom, for convenience’s sake if not out of respect for tradition.

 

Finding herself humming softly under “her” breath as she made her way down the hall, Sarah almost stopped out of hand, since both of her encounters with Sora’s friends indicated that that wasn’t something he was known for doing at all. But hell, it wasn’t like there was anyone in the house to hear her, and this really _was_ the last chance he was going to get to indulge herself.

 

At least for the rest of today.

 

“Ready, steady, can’t hold me back,” she sang softly, standing just in front of the closet beside the bathroom. “Ready, steady, give me good luck.” Pulling open the door, Sarah found that this was indeed the linen closet just like she’d been hoping for. “Ready, steady, never look back.” Gathering up three washcloths and a small towel – long and short strips for bandaging wounds – Sarah draped them over “her” left arm and continued to look through the closet in search of rubbing alcohol or some other kind of disinfectant; it wouldn’t do anyone any good to bind up wounds that hadn’t been cleaned. “Let’s get started; ready, steady, go!”

 

Not having found the rest of what she was looking for in the closet, Sarah moved into the bathroom itself.

 

“Fukitonde yuku fukei, korugaru you ni mae e.” The compartment behind the bathroom mirror was just the same as the one in her house, and Sarah smiled softly at the sheer familiarity of it. “Kurushi magure demo, hyoteki wa mou minagasanai.”

 

Plucking out a selection of larger and smaller band-aids from the various boxes that she found, Sarah was also pleased to note that there was a nearly full bottle of rubbing alcohol sitting on one of the higher shelves. She picked it up and tucked it into the crook of “her” left arm.

 

“Ate ni narani chizu, yakute shimaeba ii sa.” Making “her” way back down the hall on her way to the house’s kitchen, Sarah smiled just a bit wider. She could almost swear, that if she just concentrated hard enough, she could hear L’Arc~en~Ciel playing in the background.

 

It was kind of fun.

 

“Uzumoreta de tsukami torou.” Reaching the kitchen, already beginning to ride the wave of energy that most of her favorite songs summoned up from somewhere deep inside of her. Sarah swung in on the threshold and continued on her way into the room. Stopping just long enough to drop all of the items that she had collected off on the tabletop, Sarah continued on her way over to the drawers and cupboards that made up a good proportion of the far wall. Along with the sink that she was going to be putting to use later.

 

“Muchuu de, hayaku!” she sang out, throwing “her” head back as she continued moving forward. “Kake, nukete kita. Urusai kurai ni harisaki sou na kodou no takanari. Hibite, yonde!” throwing “her” head back once more, Sarah pulled open the drawer in front of her and then almost instantly dismissed its contents as useless: measuring spoons and the like. She closed that door almost as quickly as she had opened it. “Iru, kimi no koe. Koko de tachidomaru you na jikan wa nai sa. Ready, steady, go!”

 

Moving on, she checked the next three drawers.

 

“Kazoe kirena kizu, kakae konde ite mo,” the first one had only two things that she was interested in: a roll of tape and a hammer, which she tucked into the left pocket of Sora’s shorts. “Chotto yasotto ja, tamashi made wa ubawasenai.” The second had nothing of the sort. But the third one more than made up for the deficiencies of the first and the rather underwhelming finds in the first: the third was the knife drawer. “Ano oka no mukau de, kimi ni deaeta nara.” She took four of the standard-sized steak knives, two paring knives – as they would be much easier to conceal and would do nearly as much damage if used right – and one more after a moment’s consideration. “Nani kara hana sou, sonna koto bakari omou yo.”

 

Making her way back to the kitchen table, Sarah dropped off the knives that she had elected to take on her trip. There had also been a mini-cleaver in that drawer, but anyone who wasn’t an idiot could see that _those_ things were a hell of a lot better suited to intimidation than they were to actual combat.

 

“Muchuu de, hayaku!” pulling out the chair closest to her, Sarah plopped down into it and grabbed the towel nearest “her” right elbow.

 

“Kake, nukete kita. Urusai kurai ni harisaki sou na kodou no takanari.” Wrapping the knives that she had gathered up in the towel so that they wouldn’t shift around inside the pack while she was trying to essentially escape Ragnarök, Sarah made herself a mental note to secure them better once she made it to Traverse Town.

 

“Hibite, yonde!” digging under the socks that she had already packed for her trip, Sarah carefully nestled the bundle of knives in between two of the shirts that she had packed beforehand. “Iru, kimi no koe.” Once she had set the backpack she was working with back to rights, Sarah zipped the thing back up and left the table again. “Koko de tachidomaru you na jikan wa nai sa. Ready, steady, go!”

 

The next things she needed to find was a pair of scissors, so that she could begin making bandages to put in her First Aid kit – scratch-built as it was going to be – and something to hold the kit itself. Her best bet for that was probably going to end up being one of Sora’s lunch boxes or something like that. “Ready, steady, can’t hold me back. Ready, steady, give me good luck. Ready, steady, never look back. Let’s get started, ready, steady, go!”

 

With half of the drawers in Sora’s family’s modest kitchen searched, and a pair of scissors in Sora’s right pocket for her trouble, Sarah turned her attention to the cabinets.

 

“Kokoro wa, hashiru!” the first three that she checked were filled with pots, pans, and other cooking paraphernalia that Sarah had less than zero interest in at this point. “Ano sora no shita.” The fourth of the cabinets was under the sink, so it came as no surprise when that one was filled with cleaning products and sponges, and other things of that ilk. “Karamawari suru kimochi ga sakebi dasu no o tomerarenai. ” The next one down the line was full of Tupperware containers, or something that looked enough like them that it didn’t make much of a difference. “Kimi made, todoke!” Marking that one off for when she started gathering provisions for her trip, Sarah turned her attention to the last cabinet on this side of the room. “Kitto ato sukoshi.”

 

The lunchbox that “she” was now holding both looked and felt like something out of one of those retro shops that sold stuff from the 50s, but it would serve her purposes well enough, so Sarah put it out of her mind. “Atsuku hizashi ga terasu kono michi no mukou. Ready, steady, go? Ah please, trust me!”

 

Making her way back to the table, Sarah settled back down, set the now-open lunchbox down just outside of her work area, and began to gather up the towels and washcloths that she had previously found to make bandages out of; she left out one of the washcloths so that it could be used for cleaning wounds if she ended up needing to do so, of course. By this time, Sarah was starting to seriously miss her iPod; having music during long, monotonous jobs like this had always seemed to make them go by a hell of a lot faster.

 

Still, just because she didn’t have her iPod, that didn’t mean she didn’t have to go without music.

 

“Kimi no te de, kirisaite tooi, hi no kioku wo,” grabbing the scissors, Sarah set about methodically dismembering the various towels and washcloths she’d placed on the table in front of her. “Kanashimi no, iki no ne wo, tometekure yo. Saa, ai ni kogareta mune wo tsuranuke!”

 

As she was rolling up her makeshift bandages and packing them neatly away inside what was most likely one of the lunchboxes that Sora used for school, Sarah realized that she had forgotten splints when she had made her initial calculations about what she was going to need for this First Aid kit of hers. Sure, magic opened up quite a few more possibilities for dealing with wounds than any “normal” person could ever have at their disposal, but that still didn’t change the fact that Ethers and Potions – for restoring magical power and physical health, respectively – were pretty damned expensive. And, unlike back when she was the only one who _wasn’t_ a pre-programmed A.I. with all the limited-responses that implied, here people would actually _notice_ that “Sora” seemed more interested in hunting Heartless for money – or Munny, here – than “he” was in saving the various worlds.

 

“Asu ga kuru hazu no sora wo mite, mayou, bakari no Kokoro, motea mashiteru.” With the last of the towels reduced to strips suitable for bandaging wounds or tying tourniquets, whichever they ended up needing to be used for, Sarah decided to put aside the issue of splints, casts, and/or crutches until she’d made it to Traverse Town and had a chance to talk to Squall. It wasn’t like she had many options for making those kinds of things here, anyway.

 

“Katawara no tori ga habataita, doko ka, hikari wo mitsukerareta, no ka na.” Picking up her newly packed First Aid kit, Sarah packed it in with the rest of the stuff that she was going to be leaving in her hotel room once she’d left the broken remains of whatever planet this was far behind. “Naa, omae no se ni, ore mo nosetekurenai, ka.”

 

Lifting the backpack to test its weight, Sarah found that she could bear it at least reasonably comfortably.

 

“Soshite, ichiban takai toko de, okizari ni shite, yasashisa kara, toozakete.” That was good, since she was going to have to move quickly when Zero Hour came, and therefore she wanted to be as mobile as she could manage while still being up to her own standards of preparedness.

 

“Kimi no te de, kirisaite, tooi ni no, kioku wo.” Slinging Sora’s backpack firmly over “her” left shoulder, Sarah made her way back down the hall to Sora’s room so she could drop it off.

 

“Kanashimi no, iki no ne wo, tometekure yo.”

 

 _This next part is going to be kind of interesting,_ Sarah mused, setting the backpack she’d been working with for a fair bit of the morning down at the head of Sora’s bed, so that she could get to it easier when Zero Hour rolled around. “Saa, ai ni kogareta mune wo tsuranuke!”

 

It would involve food, and if her many camping trips with her family had taught her anything, it was that any situation that involved pre-made food and travel plans was interesting; sometimes annoying as all _fuck_ , but always interesting.

 


	14. The Gathering Dark

_Song list: The Fray, “How to Save a Life”; Soul Asylum, “Runaway Train”; The Wallflowers, “Sixth Avenue Heartache”; Loreena McKennitt, “Caravanserai (Radio Edit)”; Billy Joel, “New York State of Mind”._

 

When Kairi had woke up that morning, she was still excited about what had happened last night. She had actually talked to someone from another world! Okay, so the other girl – Sarah wasn’t a boy’s name, so Kairi didn’t think that she was wrong about _that_ , at least – had knocked Sora out of his body, and the two of them had traded places with each other, but that only meant that they could go to Sarah’s world and meet her family instead of just traveling around at random on their raft until made it to a world they all liked, the way they would have probably done otherwise.

 

Sure, Sarah could be a bit scary sometimes – and a bit harsh, too – but she kind of reminded Kairi of Riku in some ways, too. Riku if he was older; and also a girl.

 

Giggling softly at the thought of Riku as a girl, or maybe with an older sister, Kairi went over to her desk and pulled out one of her blank notebooks. It she was going to help Sarah get back to her world, which of course she was, then she was going to need to know everything she could about it. There was also the fact that she was going to be asking someone from _another world_ to talk about their own world, but that felt kind of selfish, so Kairi tried not to think of it that way.

 

Leaving her house for the day, after thanking the mayor’s wife for making her breakfast again and getting a kiss on the cheek in return, Kairi made her way down the path to Sora’s house.

 

Sarah must have been so confused when she woke up this morning; sure, she had seemed all right while the three of them had been having breakfast together yesterday, but when she looked back on that, Kairi realized that that was something that Riku probably would have done if he’d been in the same situation: pretended that he was okay so that no one else would worry about him. Riku didn’t really like people worrying about him, and from what she had seen, Sarah was just the same.

 

They would probably get along really well, once she managed to introduce them. As Sora’s house came into sight, Kairi made up her mind: she would introduce Riku to Sarah, so that when the three of them made it to her world, they would have more time to explore it. Smiling as she made her way up the path to Sora’s front door, Kairi let herself in.

 

She was just about to call out to Sarah, just in case the other girl was already up – and probably confused about just where it was that she was at the moment, but Kairi had already made up her mind to help the other girl deal with _that_ – but she paused for a moment as the sound of far-off singing reached her ears. Listening for a few moments, Kairi found that the sound was coming from Sora’s house’s kitchen.

 

The song itself wasn’t one that she had ever heard before, but that probably meant that it was from Sarah’s world: “Step one, you say ‘we need to talk’; he walks, you say ‘sit down, it’s just a talk’. Smiles politely back at you, you stare politely right on through. ”

 

It didn’t sound like a very happy song; not something that anyone would sing normally, but then Kairi realized that this wasn’t a normal situation at all. Sarah probably didn’t know that she wasn’t really trapped here, so far from everyone and everything she knew, so it really fit that she would sing a sad song from her own world; if only to remind herself that she still hade _someplace_ to come home to.

 

“Some sort of window to your right; she goes left and you stay right, between the lines of fear and blame, you begin to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life.”

 

As she continued on her way to Sora’s house’s kitchen, Kairi bit her lower lip. She would have to tell Sarah about their plans soon, before the other girl could get any sadder from missing her own world. In fact, it would probably be best if she told the other girl about what she, Sora and Riku had all been planning _before_ they left Sora’s house.

 

“Let ‘em know that you know best, ‘cause after all, you do know best. Try to slip out fear’s defense, without granting innocence. Lay out a list of what is wrong, things you told them all along; pray to God he hears you, and pray to God He heals you. And, where did I go wrong? I lost a friend; somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known; how to save a life.”

 

As she made her way over to the kitchen door, Kairi wondered for a long moment whether she should interrupt Sarah to tell her their future plans or not. On one hand, the song that Sarah was singing sounded really sad, but on the other hand, Kairi knew just how _she_ felt when she was interrupted in the middle of something. She’d never been particularly happy about the interruption, even when it had been for something good, in the end.

 

“Rashid begins to raise his voice, you lower yours and grant him one last choice: drive until you lose the road, or break with the ones you followed. He will do one of two things: he’ll admit to everything, or he’ll say he’s just not the same, and you’ll begin to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I could have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life.”

 

Pushing open the door to Sora’s house’s kitchen, deciding that it would be better if she waited for Sarah to finish somewhere the other girl would be able to see her rather than not, Kairi was caught by surprise when she saw a bright, shinning light at the back of the room. Right between the sink and the refrigerator.

 

“Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life.”

 

As she regained her bearings after the sudden – not _painful_ , just sudden – light that had filled her vision so completely, Kairi could have sworn that, for just a few moments, she could hear someone playing the piano.

 

“How to save a life.”

 

Opening her eyes, not quite having realized that she had closed them on reflex up to that point, Kairi saw the strangest thing that she had ever seen when she wasn’t dreaming.

 

“How to save a life.”

 

Right there, standing at the back of the kitchen, working at the counter almost exactly between the sink and the refrigerator, was a tall girl with just-over-shoulder-length hair; one who seemed oddly familiar, for all that Kairi knew she had never seen the other girl before.

 

“How to save a life. Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life.”

 

Stopping right in her tracks, having been making her way over to the far end of Sora’s house’s kitchen so that she could try to speak to the unfamiliar girl that she had found there so suddenly, Kairi found herself stunned all over again by what she was hearing.

 

“Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life.”

 

She almost would have said it was impossible, if she hadn’t already seen so many other things that she could have sworn were impossible before. This wasn’t even the first time she’d seen what Sarah really looked like, Kairi realized.

 

“How to save a life.”

 

Back on the boats, that first time Sarah had traveled to Play Island with them; she’d been singing then, too. Back then, all that Kairi had been able to see was bright white light in the vague shape of someone, but with the definite suggestion that there _was_ someone under it all.

 

“How to save a life.”

 

As she made her way closer to where Sarah was standing, the other girl’s back still firmly turned towards her, Kairi tried to take in as much about Sarah as she could while this strange vision lasted. She knew, from what she’d seen the last time this had happened, that she would only be able to see Sarah like this for as long as she – the other girl, that was – kept singing.

 

Moving closer, Kairi found her eyes drawn to Sarah’s right hand for a long moment; the other girl had long, graceful fingers, and Kairi found herself wondering if Sarah was an artist. At least, she wondered that up until she saw what Sarah was actually _doing_ with those graceful, artistic fingers of hers. The other girl had her – well, Sora’s actually, but right now it looked like hers – right hand curled slightly, and was actually tapping out the exact rhythm of the drums that Kairi was not-quite-hearing in just the same way as she’d not-quite-heard the piano from before.

 

She wondered if everyone from Sarah’s world could do this – could make people hear actual _music_ when they sang – or if Sarah was special even among her own people for it. As Sarah began to tap out a new rhythm on the countertop, Kairi concentrated as hard as she could on listening for a few, long moments.

 

She and Sarah could talk a bit later, and even though the other girl _was_ singing sad songs, maybe that was just what she needed to do after finding out that she had been separated from her home and everyone she had ever known.

 

“Call you up in the middle of the night, like a firefly without any light; you were there like a blow-torch burnin’, I was a key that could use a little turnin’.”

 

Making her way into the kitchen, trying to be quiet enough that she wouldn’t disturb Sarah while she was singing, Kairi saw the strangest thing that she had seen yet.

 

“So tired that I couldn’t even sleep, so many secrets I couldn’t keep, promised myself I wouldn’t weep; one more promise I couldn’t keep.”

 

Standing at the counter at the back of the kitchen, outlined in a strange, soft light that didn’t cast any shadows – light that Kairi could have almost sworn that she had seen somewhere before – was a tall, dark-blonde girl; she was wearing the exact same clothes that Sarah had dressed in this morning, though they somehow looked larger; fitting over her taller frame even though she knew that they were Sora’s size originally.

 

“It seems no one can help me now; I’m in defeat, there’s no way out. This time I have really lead myself astray.”

 

As she moved closer to the other, much taller girl – still singing with Sora’s voice, something that Kairi still thought was strange even in spite of all that she’d seen before – she saw that Sarah was making herself some sandwiches. The ingredients were more like something that her father would have ordered from the local deli than anything that Kairi’s mother would have made for her, though: ham or turkey; mustard, lettuce, mayonnaise, and the bread even looked like it had been toasted a bit beforehand. It really reminded Kairi of what her father would order when their family would go out to their local sandwich shop together.

 

It was kind of nice to be reminded of that, really.

 

“Runaway train, never goin’ back; wrong way on a one-way track; seems like I should be getting somewhere, somehow I’m neither here nor there.”

 

Looking up from Sarah’s hands – surrounded by that same not-quite—real light as the rest of her, and with long, elegant-looking fingers that reminded Kairi of descriptions of either painters or fairy-tale princesses – Kairi studied Sarah’s face as the other girl continued to sing.

 

“Can you help me remember how to smile? Make it somehow all seem worthwhile. How on Earth did I get so jaded? Life’s mysteries seem so faded. I can go where no one else can go! I know what no one else knows! Here I am, just drownin’ in the rain; with a ticket for a runaway train! And everything seems cut-and-dried: day and night, earth and sky! Somehow I just don’t believe it!”

 

Sarah’s face was kind of strange; of course, no one could say that the other girl wasn’t pretty, but Sarah’s face seemed like it could have just as easily belonged to a boy as a girl. When Kairi looked over the rest of Sarah’s body – however she was able to see it in the first place; Kairi was starting to suspect it had something to do with that strange light – she found that Sarah’s face wasn’t the only thing that made the other girl look kind of like a boy. Sarah had a lot more muscles than any girl that Kairi had ever net before; most of her muscle looked like it was in her legs, but Sarah’s arms also looked like a smoother version of Riku’s.

 

“Runaway train, never goin’ back; wrong way on a one-way track. Seems like I should be getting somewhere; somehow I’m neither here nor there.”

 

Sarah and Riku both clearly liked to exercise; something else they could talk about, besides the fact that Sarah was from another world.

 

“Bought a ticket for a runaway train, like a madman laughing at the rain. A little out of touch, a little insane. It’s just easier than dealing with the pain!”

 

Sarah had a pair of pale, greenish-brown eyes, and dark-blonde hair that she kept in a low ponytail, and the only thing that let Kairi know that Sarah was really a girl and not a boy who was a bit prettier than Riku were the other girl’s fairly large breasts. Especially considering the fact that she hadn’t actually heard Sarah’s real voice even once; not even now that the other girl was singing while she worked.

 

“Runaway train, never goin’ back; wrong way on a one-way track. Seems like I should be getting somewhere, somehow I’m neither here nor there. Runaway train, never comin’ back; runaway train, tearin’ up the track! Runaway train, burning in my veins! I run away, but it always seems the same.”

 

Kairi began to notice something a bit strange, then; not something strange about what she saw – while there was still plenty of that, she was starting to get used to it by now – but about what she was hearing. Now that Sarah’s singing wasn’t distracting her – as strangely beautiful as the other girl had made such a sad song sound – Kairi realized that she could, just barely and just when she was concentrating on it, hear some kind of music. Somehow, Kairi didn’t quite know how, she knew that the music she was not-quite-hearing had had something to do with the song that Sarah had been singing.

 

When Sarah began to pack up the sandwiches that she had made for herself, stowing them inside a cooler-bag and then putting the bag itself inside the refrigerator, Kairi opened her mouth to ask how the – clearly older – girl was doing, when she noticed that Sarah had gotten the milk out when she’d finished putting the bag inside. While Sarah began to fill some of the thermoses that Kairi had only just noticed set out on the countertop, Kairi smiled softly. It looked like Sarah really _was_ serious about being as prepared as she could be for when they all left on the raft tomorrow.

 

When Kairi heard the whistle of something that could only be a teakettle, she turned to look at the stove in slight apprehension. Sarah had seemed so completely confident and self-possessed while she had been working that Kairi had completely forgotten that Sarah was just in Sora’s body right now and not actually here working in front of her. She did, however, remember that Sora wasn’t supposed to use his family’s oven or stove anymore than she was.

 

But, just as she was about to mention this fact to Sarah – maybe ask the older girl to wait to finish doing whatever it was that she was doing until Sora’s mother could get home to help her with it – Sarah had grabbed one of the oven mitts that had been hung up one of the lower cupboards, out of reach of the stove’s heat.

 

_~KH1~_

 

She’d been peripherally aware of Kairi’s presence in the kitchen with her pretty much since the younger girl had come into the room with her, but as Kairi hadn’t elected to make a nuisance of herself, Sarah felt perfectly comfortable working around her.

 

“Sirens ring; shots ring out. A stranger cries, screams out loud,” she sang, pouring the freshly-heated water from the kettle into the thermos that she had earlier put a generous portion of cocoa powder into.

 

It almost had the same name of the brand she liked from back home, which was kind of funny, really.

 

“I had my world, strapped against my back. I held my hands; never knew how to act,” she continued, making her way over to the fridge after having emptied out the last of the water inside the teakettle and sealed the thermos tight so the heat wouldn’t escape.

 

“The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it’s drawing me in; Sixth Avenue heartache.”

 

Moving back toward the counter where she’d been working, Sarah was mildly surprised to see that Kairi had not only removed the lids to the four thermoses that she’d been planning to fill from the milk carton currently in “her” right hand, but also that of the hot cocoa that she hadn’t quite finished mixing yet.

 

With a mental shrug – it was easy to figure out what someone holding a carton of milk wanted with a bunch of thermoses – Sarah moved to continue her work.

 

“Pity me, I was a homeless man. Singing songs I knew complete. On the steps alone, this guitar in hand; fifty years, stood where he stands.”

 

Pouring milk into the four open thermoses arrayed in front of her, Sarah smiled as Kairi capped them off.

 

“The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me. Now it’s drawing me in; Sixth Avenue heartache.” Filling up the space she’d left inside the thermos of hot cocoa she’d prepared, Sarah fixed the lid back on and determinedly shook it up. “The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me; and now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache.”

 

As she moved away from the counter she’d spent a fair bit of time working at, aiming to find some containers for the water she was going to need during the first leg of her journey – before she’d gotten settled in – Sarah found Kairi tugging lightly at “her” left arm. The other girl was smiling, pointing to a cupboard just to the left of where the two of them had been working.

 

“I’m walking home, on these streets; the river winds can move my feet.” Crouching down in front of the indicated cupboard, Sarah found that it did indeed contain the very things that she was looking for; the bottles themselves were made of transparent blue plastic, and about as large as one could ask for. “Subway steam, like silhouettes in dreams. You stood by me – stood by me – just like he means.” With five of the twelve bottles gathered up in her arms, Sarah carefully rose back to “her” feet. “The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache.”

 

When Kairi came back over, taking three of the bottles that bottles that Sarah herself had been carrying over to the sink, Sarah was a bit surprised to note that the other girl was singing along as well. “Well, the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache.”

 

As the two of them stood together at the sink, filling up the bottles that Sarah was going to pack away in the duffle she’d found to take on her trip, both of them singing along to a song that Sarah had thought only she’d known, she found herself wishing – just for a moment, before she pushed all of those kinds of thoughts aside – that she could actually do something _besides_ just preparing for the oncoming destruction of this world.

 

“Look out the window, down upon that street; and gone like the midnight,. Who was that man?” As she finished filling the last of the water bottles – the small one that she was going to carry with her and refill from the larger ones back in her future hotel room – Sarah wondered if there was anything she’d neglected to do.

 

“But I’m seeing six-strings, laid against that wall. And all his things, they all look so small. I got my fingers crossed, on a shooting star. Just like we, just moved on; and the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache. Heartache. Oh, the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache; Sixth Avenue heartache. Now it’s drawing me in.” As she considered once more what she might have overlooked during her efforts to prepare for the coming apocalypse – the list she had previously made notwithstanding – Sarah looked over at Kairi.

 

The other girl had wrapped both of her arms around Sora’s left, and was swaying softly to the rhythm of the song that neither of them could really hear; it was kind of cute, really.

 

“The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, now it’s drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache. Heartache.”

 

Turning her attention more fully to Kairi, as the other girl hummed out the last few bars of the song that they had both been singing, Sarah smiled softly. While this place might not have been the home she knew – and she _was_ going to do everything she possibly could to ensure she got back there – while she was here, Sarah was at least going to enjoy herself. As much as she could manage with what she knew was coming, at least.

 

“So, do you think you finally have enough supplies for the trip, Sarah?” Kairi asked with a laugh, looking over the assortment before them.

 

“As far as meals go, yes,” she allowed; there wasn’t any real point in looking for non-perishable goods when she didn’t need to stock provisions, after all.

 

“Oh right, you mentioned that we were going to need bedding, too,” Kairi said, hand to her chin in the archetypal thinking-pose. “Well then, let’s go get them, okay?”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, making a quick stop at the counter to gather up the water bottles she’d filled for herself and stick them in Sora’s oversized pockets. “Let’s get going.”

 

Finding herself humming as the two of them made their way down the hall, Sarah was a bit surprised when _Kairi_ started singing before she did.

 

“We woke that morning at the onward call; our camels bridled up, our larders full. The sun was rising in the eastern sky, just as we set out to the desert’s cry.”

 

Stopping in front of the closet just opposite the linen closet where she’d collected the towels and washcloths that she had used in her First Aid kit, Kairi opened said closet and they both began to rifle through it in search of useful items for the trip that only she knew they weren’t really going to take.

 

“Calling, yearning; calling, come to me.”

 

Once they found the thicker blankets, what few there were considering the climate, she and Kairi quickly pulled them off the shelves.

 

“The tents grew smaller as we rode away, on earth that tells of many passing days; the months of peace and all the years of war, the lives of love and all the lives of fear.”

 

Back in Sora’s room, Sarah sat down on his bed, while making a quick mental note to fetch her supply-pack when she was done with this part.

 

“Calling, yearning; calling, come to me.”

 

As they both finished rolling up the blankets, her showing Kairi how to balance them so they didn’t just unroll when they were set down, Sarah yawned briefly as the two of them got back up. “We crossed the river, boats all lashed and stowed; and up the mighty mountains ever known; beyond the valleys in the searing heat, until we reached the Caravanserai.”

 

She personally thought that the two of them could cover more ground if they split up, or that’s what she _would_ have thought, if she’d actually had the first useful clue about just how this place was laid out. “Calling, yearning; calling, come to me.”

 

Kairi hummed along to the music that swelled near the end of the song, and Sarah smiled softly. It wasn’t like _this_ was the strangest thing that had happened to her lately.

 

“What is this life that pulls me far away? What is the home where we cannot reside? What is this quest that pulls me onward? My heart is full when you are by my side.”

 

Kairi seemed to know almost instinctively what they were looking for, which was a bit weird considering all of the mounting evidence that none of the two – or three, if you were counting Sora for some reason – people she was currently associating with had ever been camping before, but now wasn’t really the time to get into something like that.

 

“Calling, yearning; calling, come to me. Calling, yearning; calling, come to me.”

 

Sitting back down on Sora’s bed, right next to Kairi, the ropes that they had gotten from another shelf in the supply closet set neatly down beside them, Sarah began the long, fairly involved process of tying up the blankets that she had gathered for her own use – or not, considering what her future circumstances were going to be – even as Kairi did just the same on left.

 

She was the one who started singing, this time.

 

“Some folks like to get away; take a holiday, from the neighborhood. Hop a flight to Miami Beach, or to Hollywood; but I’m takin’ a Greyhound on the Hudson River line; I’m in a New York state of mind.”

 

Once she’d finished tying off the last of the three ropes that she had used to fasten the thing closed so that it wouldn’t go flapping around loose when she didn’t want it to, Sarah set the thing aside, crouched to pull out the supply-pack she’d been packing, and packed away her bottled water. Slinging her bedroll over “her” right shoulder, she climbed back out of Sora’s bed.

 

“I’ve seen all the movie stars, in their fancy cars and their limousines; been high in the Rockies, under the evergreens; I know what I needed, and I don’t want to waste more time. I’m in a New York state of mine.”

 

She and Kairi set their burdens down beside the front door, the way pretty much anyone who had prepared for more than a few camping trips in their time knew to do. It was nice to see Kairi catching on so quickly, too.

 

“It was so easy, living day-by-day, out of touch with the rhythm and blues; but now I need a little give-and-take; the New York Times; the Daily News.”

 

Kairi headed back down the hall towards the two closets; probably to pick up a pillow, which was just what Sarah herself intended to do once she had gotten her travel-pack and her supply-bag set to rights.

 

“It comes down to reality, but it’s fine with me cause I’ve let it slide; I don’t care if it’s Chinatown, or on Riverside’ I don’t have any reasons, I left them all behind. I’m in a New York state of mind.”

 

Once she’d hauled both bags back into Sora’s room, putting her supply-bag close to the bed so that she would have nigh-immediate access to it while sliding the larger and bulkier travel bag just under the cover of the blankets that hung over the edge of it, making a mental note to pull it back out before she went to sleep tonight and then grabbed the pillow off of Sora’s bed and left the room. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d slept without a pillow.

 

“It was so easy, living day-by-day; out of touch with the rhythm and blues; but now I need a little give and take; the New York Times, the Daily News; I don’t have any reasons, I left them all behind. I’m in a New York state of mind.”

 

She and Kairi met up at the front door again, and the other girl watched her as Sarah carefully tucked the pillow that she had been carrying up under two of the straps that held the rolled blankets together.

 

“I’m just takin’ a Greyhound, on the Hudson River line. Cause I’m in a New York state of mind.”

 

She noticed Kairi’s right arm around her waist then, and then felt the other girl leaning gently against her, but as the song that they had both been singing was nearly over she’d figured “what the hell” and just kept going. Sure enough, once they were both finished with the song, Kairi let go and straightened back up.

 

“So, New York is a place on your world, too?” Kairi asked, as she opened the door and the two of them trooped out onto the front steps.

 

“It’s one of the larger cities,” she confirmed, as the two of them made their way back down the path from Sora’s house.

 

Of course, New York was also one of the smaller states, but she figured that bringing _that_ up would only confuse the issue.

 

“And all those other places?”

 

She chuckled softly. “Well, they’re not exactly in walking distance, but you could always take a plane.”

 

“Just like the song said,” Kairi muttered, sounding thoughtful.

 

The two of them arrived at the docks then, where Riku stood waiting for them, so there wasn’t really anything she could say to that. Not that there was anything _to_ say to that.

 

“Hey, I see you guys managed to make out pretty well,” the silver-haired – and damn, but that was _still_ really weird to see live and in person like this – boy said, gesturing to his own boat, where a rolled-up sleeping bag that sat just on the line between on blue and purple had been tossed. “I could only find one of these. And, no offense, I’m not going to be sharing.”

 

“Bet you wouldn’t mind sharing with _Kairi_ ,” she said, giving Riku a sly, under the eyelashes look.

 

He turned away slightly, looking like he was trying not to blush, before quickly regaining his composure. “Well, that’s _different_.”

 

As the three of them prepared to board their boats and cast off, Sarah felt Kairi lean in close.

 

“Behave yourself, Sarah,” the other girl said, though she sounded fairly amused, herself.

 

“Moi?” she asked, casting the other girl a look of deliberately exaggerated innocence. “Why, I’ll be a model of decorum and tranquility.”

 

“Good,” Kairi said, grinning as if to day that she was in on the joke, too. “You do that.”

 

Their trip back to the trio of bite-sized islands was as uneventful as anyone could ask for, but considering the fact that she already knew what was coming tomorrow, that really made things more ominous rather than less. Climbing back onto the dock, Sarah hefted the blanket-and-pillow combination that she had prepared – to no real end, considering what was coming – and checked the straps to make sure they weren’t coming loose. Then, out of the corner of “her” eye, she spotted someone coming her way.

 

“If I end up in the drink, Riku, I’m going to be stealing _your_ sleeping bag.”

 

“That’s not what I was planning, Sora,” he said, chuckling. “It’s not that bad an idea, but Kairi would probably throw _me_ in if I tried it.”

 

“You’re right, I would,” the other girl said, and Sarah looked up to see her grinning at the pair of them. “Don’t fuss over your stuff so much, Sora. I’m sure you tied that up nice and tight.”

 

“Just had to be sure,” she said, smoothly rising to her feet and slinging the bundle over “her” back as she did.

 

“All right,” Kairi said, her gaze switching from Sarah herself to Riku, and then back again just as quickly. “We still have a lot of work to do on the raft,” the other girl turned a bright smile on Sarah. “Though we don’t really have to worry about food, since Sora already took care of all that.”

 

“Really?” and the dubious look Riku turned on her really made her want to cross “her” eyes at him.

 

“Yeah; he even made hot cocoa for us.”

 

“Hot cocoa?” Riku echoed. “Well, I guess that’ll come in handy if we get really cold or something.”

 

“Remind me not to let _him_ have any,” she deadpanned, smirking at Kairi.

 

“Hey!” Riku exclaimed, beginning to grin a bit himself. “Just because I think it’s a weird idea, that doesn’t mean I don’t want any.”

 

Before anyone could properly respond to that, another voice called out to them.

 

“Wow, you three are really serious about that rafting trip, yeah?”

 

“Good morning, Wakka,” Kairi called cheerfully.

 

“ _Sora’s_ the one who’s really serious about this trip, Wakka,” Riku said, slinging his free arm around “her” shoulders. “He’s the one who thought all this up.”

 

“Yeah?” Wakka asked, turning slightly to grin at “her”. “Well, good thinking, mon. I wouldn’t want to be sleeping on the hard ground, neither.”

 

“Thanks,” she said, nodding in his direction with a smile, even as the three of them continued walking.

 

“That reminds me,” Riku said, as the three of them came up to the wooden wall that served to separate the two halves of the largest – though that really wasn’t saying much – island, and pushed open the door with his free hand. “We still need to think up a _name_ for the raft.”

 

“Why don’t we let Sora do that? Since he’s gotten us organized like this,” Kairi suggested.

 

Sarah didn’t know just what the other girl’s aim was, but under the circumstances she didn’t really care; it wasn’t like it was going to matter much, considering what was coming.

 

“Whatever you guys want to name the raft, that’s fine with me,” she muttered, far from interested in naming something that was going to be destroyed come tomorrow.

 

Dead silence; Sarah stopped in her tracks, turning to look back over “her” right shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I bet you’re just worn out from all the packing you’ve been doing,” Kairi said, before Riku could make any sort of comments. “Why don’t we wait for awhile, and _then_ decide what to name the raft?”

 

Fighting back a wince, and silently thanking Kairi for her quick thinking, Sarah couldn’t quite hold back a sigh.

 

“I guess I’ve been working harder than I thought. Thanks, Kairi,” she said, smiling.

 

“No problem,” the other girl said, smiling in a way that suggested she understood the double-meaning of what Sarah had just said.

 

The three of them dropped their bedrolls off near the mast of the raft, and Sarah noticed Riku falling into step beside her.

 

“Don’t work yourself _too_ hard today, Sora,” he said, and Sarah looked over to see his cocky smirk aimed at her. “After yesterday, I _definitely_ want a rematch.”

 

“I’m game,” she said, smirking right back. “Where and when?”

 

“I’ll come get you,” he said, and left to go do whatever it was that videogame characters did when they suddenly became real.

 

“Sarah?” Kairi called, after checking to make sure that Riku was fully out of earshot; Sarah was grateful for the other girl’s discretion. “Do you think we could tell Riku about what’s going on?”

 

She almost laughed. “No offense, but I _really_ don’t think that would be a good idea.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Well, Riku he’s…” she trailed off, pausing for a few, long moments as she searched for something diplomatic to say.

 

“He’s what, Sarah?” Kairi pressed, as the two of them made their way up the beach in the vague direction of the coconut palm grove.

 

“I’m looking for a polite way to say dense as neutron-degenerate matter, but I don’t seem to be finding it.”

 

“What?” Kairi asked, sounding more confused than irate on Riku’s behalf.

 

Maybe she didn’t study astronomy.

 

“Well, I’d say he’s dumb as a sack of hammers, but I wouldn’t want to insult the hammers.”

 

Just after she’d finished speaking, but before Kairi had said anything in response, Sarah heard a very familiar laugh.

 

“That’s a good one, Sora,” Riku said, smirking and still snickering a bit. “I’ll have to remember that one.” He laughed again. “Insult the hammers.” Sarah, having spotted the most probable reason for Riku to have sought them out again, waited for the silver-haired boy to regain his composure again. “Anyway, I managed to get the fishing rods you said we’ll probably be needing, but I couldn’t manage to find the rifle,” he frowned. “I think my dad keeps it locked up, somewhere.”

 

 _And let us all be grateful for small mercies,_ she didn’t say. “I’m sure we’ll be able to manage without it.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Riku said, rolling his shoulders as he shifted his grip on the fishing poles and what was most likely a box of tackle. “Come on, let’s go put the rest of this stuff with the raft.”

 

As the three of them made their way back toward the aforementioned watercraft, Sarah firmly resisted the urge to shake “her” head or roll “her” eyes. It wasn’t as though anything the three of them were doing right here and now was going ultimately going to matter. Still, it would probably help preserve her remaining cover if she at least attempted to _feign_ interest.

 

She was vaguely curious if the in-game naming-scheme would hold true even in this flesh-and-blood world.

 

“You know, I think we should name the raft the Highwind,” Riku said.

 

She almost laughed; there was _that_ question answered.

 

“I thought we were going to let Sora name the raft,” Kairi said.

 

“Riku can name the raft if he wants,” she said, not particularly caring about the debate.

 

It’d be completely moot once Zero Hour came; and Zero Hour was coming fast.

 

“Oh come on, Sora,” Riku said, slinging his unladened right arm around “her” shoulders and giving “her” a gentle shake. “You have to have _some_ idea about what to name the raft.”

 

 _I will not suggest the name NTom64OWNS,_ she didn’t say, biting back a smirk even as she regained her composure. “Maybe the Normandy.”

 

“The Normandy?” Riku echoed, even as she slipped his hold and continued on her way to the grove.

 

“Or just Normandy,” she answered off-handedly.

 

As she looked up, she contemplated the small grove of coconut palms. She’d had quite a few coconuts in her time – sometimes whole and sometimes not – but never fresh off the tree. The fact that she’d seen them hanging up there, unlike in the game where they hadn’t been rendered, made the situation all the more interesting.

 

And, some might say, more tempting.

 

Making her way back to the raft, Sarah dropped off her cargo along with Riku and Kairi. Rolling “her” left shoulder to work off the tension she’d built up carrying it, Sarah sighed gratefully.

 

“Well, that’s one more job done,” she said, linking “her” arms behind “her” head so that she could stretch “her” back. “What do you guys want to do next?”

 

“How about we decide what to name the raft?” Riku insisted.

 

Kairi shook her head. “Sora spent most of the morning making food to get ready for our trip, and all three of us had to roll up our own bedding. So, why don’t we all just take a break and have fun for awhile?”

 

Riku looked thoughtful for a moment, before smiling. “All right, Kairi, if that’s what you really want.”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Sarah said, more pleased at the moment to have that damned weight off “her” shoulder than to concern herself with something she’d never been particularly interested, and that ultimately wasn’t going to mean one damned thing.

 

“All right, it’s settled then,” Kairi said, smiling at the both of them. “We’ll all meet up later, and _then_ decide what to name the raft.”

 

“All right, then. Later, Kairi. You too, Sora,” Riku said, turning to leave.

 

“Later, Riku,” she said to his retreating back.

 

“Sarah, what did you mean when you kept saying that Riku was stupid?” she asked, an earnest expression on her face.

 

Sarah sighed; she’d really have to remember to stop reacting to Riku on the basis of her out-of-context knowledge. Especially around someone as perceptive as Kairi. “I’ve known people like him,” she said, settling once again for a half-truth. “They always think they know more than they really do, and their short-sightedness usually lands them and everyone around them in serious trouble. I’d keep my wits about me around him, if I were you.”

 

“Sarah, that’s not a nice thing to say at all,” Kairi said, and Sarah noticed that the other girl had begun to lash the sleeping bags together, and then tie the resulting mass to the mast.

 

Sarah was glad to note that she wasn’t the only one capable of taking initiative. Still, Kairi had likely been raised in at least a casual sailing culture, if not an entirely seafaring one, so it was only natural that she would know how to handle herself when it came to securing cargo on a vessel.

 

“That doesn’t make it any less true,” she said calmly, continuing to watch as Kairi secured their respective bedrolls so that they wouldn’t go flying off if they encountered a bit of turbulence.

 

Kairi sighed, finishing the last knot before she looked back up. “I know Riku can be a bit impulsive, Sarah, but I don’t think he’s as bad as you think he is.”

 

 _Future events will bear me out on that,_ she was oh-so-tempted to say. “Well, I guess you _would_ know him better than I do,” she settled for.

 

“Yeah,” Kairi muttered, looking thoughtful for a few moments, before she smiled brightly. “Why don’t you go take a look around? I bet you haven’t seen a place like _this_ before.”

 

 _I wouldn’t take that bet,_ Sarah mused sardonically, walking out under the coconut palms.

 

It was approximately weird as fuck, seeing real things that you had seen so many times before, and Sarah wondered for a moment if this was how people felt when they played video games that were either partially or fully based on places where _they_ lived. It was the little details that really made it, though: of _course_ the coconut palms wouldn’t be so neatly-spaced if they had grown naturally, and of course there would be parts of the root-systems visible where the rain had washed parts of the soil away.

 

Everything that she was seeing contributed to the idea of this as a real, living planet with its own ecosystem and history. Even the gull shit that had caked along the top of the wall. Feeling someone’s arm wrapping around both of “her” shoulders, Sarah turned to her left to see Kairi smiling at her.

 

“See? I knew you’d like it here. Even if it _is_ different from your home.”

 

Sarah laughed. “Actually, I was just thinking that this place looks a lot like some of the beaches Dad and I went to.”

 

Which was one more half-truth in a long line of them, yeah, but even though Kairi had found out _some_ of the truth, she probably wasn’t ready to hear all of it. It wasn’t something that people liked to think about: the fact that their friend was either a genocidal madman, or arrogant enough to screw with forces beyond his current understanding; and in either case willing to sacrifice his family, their families, and god knew how many uninvolved civilians to his own hubris. Not many people would think someone they knew would be capable of that, since most people liked to think of themselves as good. She tried not to use psychological warfare on people she wasn’t actually _fighting_ , and not on someone as nice as Kairi.

 

“Wow,” Kairi said, bringing Sarah’s attention back to the here and now, strange as it currently was. “You mean, parts of your world look just like ours?”

 

“Something like that,” she said, with a last look up at the grove of coconut palms as she and Kairi made their way back toward the large, wooden wall that bisected the largest of the small islands. Kairi laughed suddenly.

 

“Had a funny thought?” she asked.

 

“I was just about to ask what you wanted to see first, but you’ve never been here, so that would have been really silly of me.”

 

“You’re right, that _is_ pretty funny,” she said, chuckling softly herself.

 

She was about to suggest that Kairi just show her around to those places that she enjoyed most on the island and not worry about the all that other strictly-formal tour guide crap, when she remembered that there was one particular little hitch in the plans that the other girl was so tentatively forming: Riku. Dense and outright oblivious as he was, even _he_ wasn’t stupid enough to miss the whole guided-tour aspect of what Kairi was planning to do.

 

“I’m sure I can manage to find my way back here after I explore the island for a bit,” she said, as the two of them came to a stop in front of the door that would take them back to the half of the island that they’d arrived on in the first place.

 

“It’s all right, Sarah, I don’t mind. It’ll be fun to show you around. You can see all the places that Riku, and Sora and I have found to play on this island.”

 

“And therein lies the problem,” she said, turning so that she could rest “her” back against a clear patch of the high, wooden wall, facing Kairi squarely.

 

“What do you mean, Sarah? I’m sure Riku would understand, if we just told him what was going on.”

 

“There are two big things wrong with your starting premise,” she said, considering how best to express what she wanted to get across, without giving Kairi reason to perhaps begin to doubt her own existence, or else to think that Sarah herself was completely insane.

 

“What do you mean, Sarah?”

 

“Well, think back on how _you_ decided to find out if I was Sora or not,” she prompted. “Riku was seeing the exact same things you were, back then. Do you think he noticed them?”

 

“I don’t know,” Kairi said, with a soft sigh and a slump of her shoulders. “Maybe he noticed, and just decided not to say anything.”

 

People always wanted to think the best of their friends. “You know him better than I do,” she said, both for the fact that it was true, and to get Kairi to think. “Is he the kind of person who would do that.”

 

“Well,” Kairi paused for a moment, clearly thinking. That was good; someone who could stop and think before they went and did something was a lot less likely to make stupid mistakes than someone who didn’t. “No; I guess not.”

 

“Keeping that in mind, do you honestly think he’d believe you if you told him what was going on?”

 

Kairi half-chuckled, shaking her head and wearing a rueful sort of smile. “How do you manage to pick everything apart like that?”

 

“I think most people would call that logic, Kairi,” she said, pushing “herself” away from the wall so that she could sling one of “her” arms around Kairi’s shoulders as the two of them made their way through the door and back to the other side of the island.

 

Kairi wrinkled her nose, but she was still smiling so Sarah knew that the other girl wasn’t being _entirely_ serious. “I though logic was for old people.”

 

Sarah laughed. “Logic, my dear, is for anyone who wants to grow old in the first place. If you just keep reacting to situations as they come, that always ends up getting you into trouble.”

 

“I guess it does,” Kairi said, looking thoughtful for a long moment.

 

As the two of them made their way back out onto the half of the island that the three of them had originally landed on, Sarah found “her” eyes drawn once more to the building whose purpose she had wondered about ever since she had played KH1 for the second time. While she couldn’t have asked the last time they were all here, there _were_ certain advantages to having someone in on her secret. Still, just because one of her secrets was out, that didn’t mean she could stop being careful.

 

There were secrets she kept that people on this planet were better off not knowing.

 

“What’s that shack?” she asked, guiding the other girl’s attention to the small, squat-looking shed-type building whose continued mysteriousness irked her on general principle. “Some kind of seaside cabana, or something? I saw it when we came in yesterday.” _And quite a few times before that,_ she added silently.

 

“Cabana?” Kairi echoed, sounding like she didn’t quite know how to answer.

 

Sarah, not quite sure if the other girl was confused over her choice of words or if she just didn’t know what Sarah was talking about, decided to clarify both. “A cabana is a place where you can change into the clothes you wear at the beach. You know, for swimming and stuff,” she said, before a rather interesting – some might say _disturbing_ – thought came to her. “That is, unless you guys actually swim naked here. You don’t, do you?” she asked, turning back to Kairi with a raised eyebrow.

 

The other girl stopped right in her tracks, an expression on her face that suggested someone who had just bitten into something spicy when she hadn’t expected to. And then she burst out laughing.

 

“No,” she finally got out, her voice still quavering with laughter. “We don’t do that,” she snickered a bit more, then cleared her throat in an obvious effort to compose herself again. “Anyway, I don’t know where you’d find someplace like that, but this place is really,” Kairi paused for a moment, looking like she was searching for something to say, or else just thinking about _how_ to say whatever it was. “Well, do you know what an outhouse is?”

 

“ _That’s_ what this thing is?” she asked, raising both eyebrows in surprise.

 

“So, you _do_ have something like this on your world,” Kairi said, smiling softly.

 

“Yeah, but ours are usually smaller; just enough for one person to use. And they usually have a crescent moon carved into the front door.”

 

At least the wooden ones did, and for a moment Sarah debated with herself about whether or not to mention the plastic porta-johns, before deciding to let Kairi herself ask first.

 

“That sound pretty,” the other girl said, with a soft chuckle.

 

There was really nothing she could say to that, so Sarah let her mind wander just a bit. She would still hear Kairi if the other girl wanted to ask her something, but she was also free to take in just how _real_ the world around her was. It was the smell that really sold it: you couldn’t smell things when you were dreaming, and there wasn’t much that smelled like sea air in the first place.

 

“Why do you keep doing that, Sarah?” Kairi asked, just as she had opened “her” eyes after a particularly deep breath of fresh, clean sea air.

 

“Hmm? Oh, you live in a coastal town, so I guess you’d be used to this kind of thing,” she said, as she and Kairi continued on their way to a destination known only to the other girl.

 

“You mean, you and your family don’t live close to the ocean?”

 

“Nope,” she said, smiling slightly as she shook “her” head. “We live farther inland.”

 

“What’s that _like_?” Kairi asked, curling both of her arms around Sora’s left as the two of them continued on their way across the more-miniscule-than-small island.

 

“Well, for one thing, the air smells quite a bit different; less salt smell, more dirt and trees. And a fair bit more of the smells you get in the city,” Sarah paused for a moment, thinking. “There’s a lot less seagulls and a lot more pigeons, though some seagulls do show up from time to time,” she paused again, glancing at Kairi. “You _have_ heard of pigeons, right?”

 

“Are those the gray birds with the shiny green heads?”

 

“Those would be the ones,” she said, surprised for a few moments at the presence of earthlike fauna on a planet that – when you came right down to it – wasn’t Earth.

 

“Do you feed them fried potato strips, too?”

 

“Fried potato strips?” she echoed, raising an eyebrow. “You mean, those finely-sliced things that are cooked by boiling them in oil?”

 

“Yeah, those are the ones,” Kairi said happily, and then she pulled out a notebook and pen, and Sarah wondered just what was up with that. “Are they called something else in your world?”

 

“French Fries; even though I don’t think they were actually first made in France. And, they probably call them different in France, too,” she said, tilting “her” head slightly in contemplation.

 

“So, you _have_ been to other worlds before,” Kairi interjected, not quite sounding like she was asking a question.

 

Sarah laughed; she couldn’t help it. “Well, there _are_ people who claim that the French are weird enough to be from another planet, but those people are jerks and you shouldn’t listen to them,” she chuckled softly, more reflectively this time. “This is the first extraterrestrial _or_ extrasolar planet that I’ve ever set foot on,” she smiled mischievously, inviting Kairi to share in the joke. “And these aren’t even _my_ feet.” Kairi laughed, just like Sarah had invited her to. “No, France is just a separate country on Earth,” pausing for a moment as Kairi wrote down some more things in that notebook of hers, Sarah hooked “her” left thumb into the same-side pocket of Sora’s shorts. “You know, if you’re really going to do this, you might want to find somewhere we can sit down; I don’t know about you, but having long talks standing up isn’t really my idea of a good time.”

 

Kairi laughed softly. “Don’t worry, Sarah. We’re going to the clubhouse. You know, the place where you found the sail for our raft,” Kairi frowned briefly. “Come to think of it, how _did_ you know to look for it in there, Sarah? You’ve never been to this world before.”


	15. Storm Surge

_Song list: The Buggles: “Video Killed the Radio Star”_

 

Sarah chuckled softly; now _there_ was an interesting conundrum. Tell the truth, and not only really confuse the other girl, but also risk prompting some kind of an existential crisis depending on how mentally resilient Kairi was. Or, deflect her interest onto some other topic, and spare the both of them having to open _that_ particular can of worms. _And, as always when I hit these little speedbumps, I choose… the hidden third option._ In this case, a rather interesting mix of the previous two.

 

“If you’re going to start asking me things like _that_ , you might want to start thinking about how I even knew your name in the first place.” Kairi’s lips parted, and Sarah paused for a moment to see if the other girl would say anything. When she didn’t, Sarah pressed on. “Or, how I’m coping so well with all of this in the first place,” she said, swinging around so that she and Kairi could still face each other as they continued walking.

 

“What do you mean by _that_ , Sarah?”

 

“You know I’m a girl, right?” she asked, raising one of “her” eyebrows as the two of them continued on their way.

 

“Yeah,” Kairi nodded, and then she smiled. “I saw you while you were singing; you’re pretty, Sarah.”

 

“Thanks,” she said. Complements, even those about things that weren’t – strictly speaking – important, were gifts that people chose to give to you. And a polite person always acknowledged a gift when it was given. “Still, that’s not what I was getting at.”

 

“What _were_ you getting at, then?”

 

“You know how people have memories of where they’ve been and what they’ve done?” It was almost a rhetorical question on her part, considering what a fair few of these characters dealt with in the next game, but it always helped to make sure the person you were talking to actually knew what you were talking _about_.

 

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”

 

Looking back over “her” left shoulder, just to make absolutely sure that she wasn’t about to walk into anything, Sarah turned her attention back to the other girl. “What some people don’t know, is that there’s a deeper level of memories than just your conscious ones.”

 

“What do you mean by _that_ , Sarah?” Kairi asked, pulling out her notebook and pen as they continued to walk.

 

Sarah smiled softly; now was the perfect time and place for another object lesson, and the other girl had inadvertently given her the means to impart it to her. “Well, look at what we’re doing right now.”

 

“Sarah, we’re just walking,” Kairi said, looking confused.

 

“Is that something you have to think about? Do you have to think about each step, before you take it?”

 

“Well, no,” Kairi said, looking down at her feet and then back up, the expression on her face gradually becoming less confused and more interested.

 

“That’s what the people who study those kinds of things call procedural memory. It’s also been called muscle-memory, but that’s not technically correct.”

 

“Our _muscles_ can remember things?” the other girl asked, looking intrigued about what was obviously a new idea to her.

 

She laughed. “No, that’s just what some people call them. It just refers to how, if you do something often enough – like walking, talking, eating, or for some people, fighting – it becomes ingrained at a far more fundamental level in your memory, and you won’t have to consciously _think_ about it anymore.”

 

“Wow,” Kairi said, her pen practically flowing across the pages of her notebook as she continued to write. Looking down at her right hand, Kairi laughed. “I guess I’ve been using it all this time without knowing I had.”

 

“Well, writing’s also something you can learn to do well enough that you only have to think about _what_ you’re writing, instead of _how_ ,” she said, as she felt something gently bumping into “her” left shoulder, Sarah turned to see that it was, in fact, the ladder that lead up to what might have been called – if one were charitable – the second level of the island.

 

“Wow,” Kairi repeated, both of her eyebrows raised in clear interest. “I never knew about that.” She grinned. “The people of your world sure study a lot of things.”

 

She chuckled softly. “We have a lot of scientists.”

 

Turning around, Sarah made her way up the ladder and across the plank-bridge that lead to the hollowed-out space that had been used to hold the cloth for the first game’s initial fetch-quest. She hadn’t paid much attention to it, either in-game or out, but now that she was getting a much more in-depth second look, Sarah found that the place was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the game had lead her to believe. There was even a table, though a fairly low one, placed carefully out of the way of the entrance.

 

Looking back as Kairi came in, Sarah watched as the other girl went over to the table and picked up the lantern set almost perfectly in the center of it. Sarah had a couple of seconds to wonder just what kind of lantern it was, before Kairi turned the thing on and filled the small space with a warm, buttery incandescence. Watching as Kairi hung the thing from a hook that also probably hadn’t existed in the PS2-rendered version of this world; if the ceiling of this room had even been rendered at all.

 

Which wasn’t something she’d ever thought to check; then again, it wasn’t like she’d ever been given a _reason_ to, either.

 

“Sarah?” Kairi called softly, bringing her attention back from where it had so clearly wandered. “Is there really something interesting about the ceiling?” the other girl sounded like she was _trying_ to be serious, but couldn’t quite make it past the inherent silliness of the question.

 

“No,” she smiled back. “I was just thinking.”

 

“About being back on your world,” the other girl said, with a certainty that Sarah hadn’t often heard from her in-game. “Don’t worry, Sarah,” Kairi said, reaching over the table to clasp Sora’s hands. “We’ll both do everything we can to help you get back to your world.” The solemn expression on the other girl’s face changed to one of excitement after she’d finished saying that. “And the, maybe you could show us around your world, after we meet up with Sora!”

 

She would have asked just why and how Kairi had expected Sora to have made it to Earth in the first place, but it was clear that the other girl had made up her mind already. Not like it really mattered, anyway; considering what was coming. Blinking as she realized that Kairi had leaned around the table and was hugging “her”, Sarah raised an eyebrow as the other girl pulled back slightly.

 

“You don’t have to worry so much all the time, Sarah,” Kairi said, smiling warmly. “Riku and I are going to do everything we can to help you get back home.”

 

 _Why does that not fill me with confidence?_ She mused, biting back a small, cynical smirk.

 

Kairi looked so earnest, clearly completely believing what she was saying; and just as clearly thinking the best of Riku, but that was only natural considering that she was his friend. Idly, Sarah wondered what she thought of him during KH2, but then he _did_ have a ready-made excuse for how he’d acted during this whole debacle: just blame the Darkness. Simple, easy, and no one had to confront any uncomfortable truths about themselves.

 

Riku seemed like the type to do that as things stood, but who knew; maybe he’d actually _matured_ in the time between now and KH2.

 

She wouldn’t know; she hadn’t even gotten through his story in Re: Chain of Memories.

 

“Sarah?”

 

“Hmm?” she turned her full attention back to Kairi, tilting “her” head slightly to show that she was listening.

 

“This might sound like kind of a strange thing for me to ask,” Kairi said, looking like _she_ at least thought it was strange. “But, do you think you could sing for me again?”

 

 _And she think’s_ that’s _a strange request,_ Sarah mused, swallowing chuckles; Kairi probably wouldn’t understand what she found so amusing, and she didn’t want the other girl to think she was laughing at _her_. “Any particular reason?”

 

“I’d just like to see you again, that’s all,” the other girl said, smiling.

 

She raised an eyebrow; now that _did_ sound fairly odd. “Beg pardon?”

 

“When you and I were singing together, Sarah,” the other girl said, looking cheerfully excited at the prospect; whether or not she had actually seen something remained to be determined, but it was clear that _Kairi_ believed it, all the same. “I could see what you really looked like; I could see _you_ ,” she laughed softly. “But you still sounded like Sora.”

 

Turning that over in her mind, Sarah decided that there was only one thing that _she_ , in particular, could say in the face of a revelation like that. “You know, on my world we have a saying: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,” she said, folding “her” arms and settling back in her seat. “You’ve just made a pretty extraordinary claim, but the real question is, can you back it up?”

 

“How do you think I should do that, Sarah?” the other girl asked, after she’d finished jotting down a few more notes in the book she had brought with her.

 

“Well, for something like that, it’s fairly simple; when you think about it,” she said, smiling as she settled “herself” more comfortably on the cushion. “Just, tell me what I look like.”

 

Kairi laughed, though she sounded a bit sheepish. “I guess that _is_ pretty simple,” the other girl said, smiling as she opened up her notebook again; Sarah waited until the other girl had finished making notes, before she raised an eyebrow in subtle prompting. “Well, you have long hair, and it’s a lot longer,” Kairi paused for a few, long moments, clearly thinking back on what she’d been saying. “Well, maybe a _bit_ longer than Sora’s,” she said at last, her head still a bit tilted in thought. Then she chuckled softly. “Yours is nowhere near as spiky, though.”

 

“Yes,” she said, reaching up to run “her” left hand through said spiky mass. “I rather think this _would_ be hard to top, for sheer volume if nothing else.” Resting “her” chin on the hand that she’d run through Sora’s hair and tilting “her” head slightly. “So, do _you_ know how it stays up like this? Because, given everything I know from taking care of my own hair, this kind of thing just doesn’t _work_.”

 

Well, okay it _could_ be made to work – she knew that much after styling all those cosplay wigs – but she hadn’t seen any evidence of the kind of hair-styling products that she’d needed to use on those wigs. Besides, if that _had_ been how Sora had been maintaining his hair, it wouldn’t have held through her morning shower in the first place. It was hardly the strangest thing that she was being forced to deal with, but the fact that – for all intents and purposes – she _was_ Sora and she _still_ couldn’t figure this kind of thing out was irritating. Like an itch that she couldn’t quite manage to scratch.

 

Kairi giggled, closing her eyes briefly with the force of her mirth. “You’re so strange, Sarah.”

 

“What?” she asked, smirking at Kairi when the other girl had opened her eyes again. “It’s a perfectly legitimate question. Still, if even _you_ don’t know, then I guess I’m just plain out of luck.”

 

Kairi had doubled over by the time Sarah had finished speaking, her nigh-hysterical and wildly amused laughter filling the small room where the two of them were sitting.

 

“I thought I heard you two up here somewhere,” Riku’s voice dew Sarah’s attention back to the entrance of the treehouse-in-all-but-name that she and Kairi had made their way up to. “What’s so funny?”

 

“It was,” Kairi trailed off, clearly struggling to regain her composure. “It was just something Sora said; you really had to be here.”

 

“I missed out on a good joke?” the silver-haired boy asked, looking from her to Kairi and then back again as he came to sit down at the table with them.

 

Sarah, meanwhile, couldn’t help but notice just how close Kairi had come to pronouncing her name instead of Sora’s. Completely inadvertently, she was sure, but nonetheless it was probably time for another object lesson. “Yeah, I just got done telling Kairi about how I’m really the disembodied consciousness of a girl from another world, who latched onto Sora and is currently possessing him until I can manage to find a way back home.”

 

It only took about half a minute for Riku to crack up laughing, and while he was doubled over the table from laughter, Sarah took the opportunity to make a “there, see?” gesture at Kairi while his attention was elsewhere.

 

“Oh man, that _was_ a good one, Sora,” Riku said, breathing deeply even as Kairi chewed her lower lip in thought. “Maybe you should write that down for when we get to another world,” he said, grinning at the two of them in turn. “Then we could publish it and all be rich and famous.”

 

“You mean, you really haven’t noticed?” Kairi asked, looking genuinely curious and a bit concerned besides.  


“Noticed what, Kairi?” Riku asked, his attention now squarely focused on the other girl.

 

“You haven’t noticed that Sora’s been acting different than he usually does?”

 

Riku laughed again, but this one was more like an incredulous grunt than anything else. “Kairi, Sora’s _always_ been weird.”

 

 _Oblivious, or dumb as a post? You be the judge,_ she mused, amused by the proceedings.

 

Kairi looked like she was about to say something, if only she could figure out what that was. Then the expression on her face smoothed out and became one of determination.

 

“Well, I guess there’s really only one way to prove this,” the other girl said, giving Riku a long, subtly reproving look. “Sora?” she said, again sounding like she might have been trying to subtly pronounce a different name altogether. “Do you think you could sing for us again?”

 

She raised one of Sora’s eyebrows at the other girl for that, but in the end it was Riku who had the more dramatic reaction.

 

“What in the heck is _that_ supposed to prove, Kairi?” Riku asked, looking from “her” to the other girl and then back again. “Sora’s always liked to sing. He’s probably just doing it a bit more now because we’re going to be leaving tomorrow morning, and he’s excited about that.”

 

Kairi’s expression quickly became one of annoyance, while Sarah herself chuckled inwardly; that was human nature for you. It was likely why Occam ’s razor had become so widely used: the times that it didn’t apply were few and far-between enough that they could safely be counted as flukes.

 

“C’mon, you two. I like a good story as much as the next guy, but I think you’re both taking this a bit too far.”

 

Kairi looked like she still didn’t quite know how to react to Riku’s complete dismissal of the facts of their current situation. But, when “the facts of their current situation” sounded so completely insane, sometimes the only possible response _was_ to laugh at them. At least until one was presented with irrefutable proof, which the two of them were kind of short on at the moment.

 

“So, you guys want me to help you with this story of yours?” Riku asked, tilting his head slightly as he grinned.

 

“I’m going to go stretch my legs a bit,” Sarah said, rising from her seat before she herself could give into the urge to laugh. “I’ve been sitting a bit too long for my taste.”

 

“What, you mean you’re just going to leave me alone here with Kairi?” Riku asked, his tone gently teasing, but with an undertone of smugness that she was sure Sora would have been annoyed by.

 

But, like she’d already established: she wasn’t Sora.

 

“You just don’t have _too_ much fun without me, okay?” She’d been more than a little tempted to say “you kids”, if only to see how Riku would have reacted to that, but in the end she’d decided to leave things be.

 

He would learn well enough during Zero Hour, just how different from Sora she really was.

 

Making her way back out of the treehouse – doorless as it was in the end – and back down to ground-level again, Sarah stretched just as she’d been planning to do when she’d left in the first place. Sure, having a place to sit down was nice, but it got fairly boring after long enough spent on one’s ass.

 

Making her way out from under the shadows of the walkways that lead to the various upper-storey structures on this particular island, Sarah found her attention drawn to a particular patch within the otherwise innocuous masses of foliage. A certain conspicuously bare patch. Considering that she had already packed food for her trip – something that Kairi and Riku both thought they would be sharing in – she wouldn’t have any real reason to visit that particular cave under normal circumstances.

 

Still, that wasn’t to say that she couldn’t do just that, simply to satisfy her own curiosity in this case.

 

Her mind made up, Sarah made her way over to the empty patch. For a few moments, as even Sora’s comparatively smaller bulk blocked out the light spilling into the relatively small cavern, she wondered if he was even there at all. But still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Shimmying down the hole and into the tunnel, she made her way down and into the cavern. She paused for a long moment,  standing perfectly still and fixing her gaze on the darkest part of the cavern she could pick out, Sarah waited for a few moments more for “her” eyes to adjust to the relative darkness within the cavern. Once she had regained her night-vision after a day spent in the bright sunlight, she began to explore the small cavern that she now found herself in.

 

The place was about as dark as she’d been expecting, considering what she’d seen in-game, making the rock-art carved into the walls all the more difficult to see. Which went a long way toward explaining the quality of said carvings. Even if they _had_ brought in extra sources of light, which she honestly suspected they had, there was only so much one could do with rock carving if one didn’t have the proper tools. And it was clear from the cutscenes she’d seen, both in the game and in the Hellfire Commentaries playthrough that she watched when she was in the mood for a laugh, that none of them did.

 

It wasn’t much of a surprise; one did _not_ buy rock carving tools for someone their age unless they had demonstrated particularly intense dedication to the art.

 

The rich, earthy smell of the cavern that she now stood in was the first non-visual sense that registered; Sarah was just grateful that it didn’t actually smell like shit, since mushrooms grew in this cavern, and anyone who’d heard that old saying knew what mushrooms grew out of.

 

 _Speaking of mushrooms,_ she mused, carefully making her way over to where a small patch of them were growing. She’d long since learned what kind of wild mushrooms were safe to eat, and a general rule of thumb was that dull-colored mushrooms and those that grew underground were both the best to look for. These mushrooms, having both of those qualities, were thus the most likely to be perfectly safe. Combined with the fact that game!Kairi had been perfectly comfortable with eating them, Sarah was rather curious to know what they tasted like, herself.

 

Of course, she also remembered that, in-game, the other girl had been perfectly amenable to the idea of eating fish and eggs completely raw, so there was a chance that these mushrooms wouldn’t be particularly appetizing in their current state.

 

Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Breaking one of the smaller mushrooms free from its stalk as close to the ground as she cared to, Sarah took the time to brush it clean of the remaining bits of soil that stubbornly clung to it. In this case, she didn’t need whatever nourishment she could manage as fast as she could gather it, so she could afford to take her time. Biting into the freshly-cleaned mushroom, Sarah chewed thoughtfully.

 

It tasted a lot like a button mushroom, but with a smoother and slightly more buttery aftertaste; she could see why Kairi would have been so willing to eat these.

 

The raw fish and the seagull egg were still something of a mystery, though she had to admit that that particular mystery was one she was perfectly happy to leave unsolved.

 

“You do not belong here,” a very deep, powerful, and above all _familiar_ voice echoed from the back of the small cavern where she’d stood alone among the mushrooms.

 

“Well,” she said, smirking as she turned to face the tall, hooded figure at the back of the cavern. “That makes two of us.” She took another bite of the mushroom she was holding, carefully, deliberately casual. “Let me guess; you’ve come to see the door to this world.”

 

The last part was said in a rather better imitation of “Ansem’s” voice than she had ever been able to manage before; she supposed that her current possession of male vocal chords might have had something to do with that.

 

“How did you know that?”

 

She lowered “her” eyelids to a deliberate, mocking half-mast. “I’m psychic.” Smirking at the confusion in “Ansem’s” stance – there wasn’t much point in trying to read the expressions on a guy’s face when he didn’t actually have one, but body-language was always a factor when you knew how to read it – Sarah decided to see just how this game of theirs would play out when he knew that she was holding more of the cards than he’d been counting on.

 

“Let me guess,” she pressed two fingers to “her” right temple, making it very easy for one to assume that she was calling upon heretofore-unknown powers of clairvoyance. “You would be… Ansem, seeker of Darkness, right?”

 

“Psychic indeed,” he said, tilting what passed for his head as he peered more closely at her. “The door to this world must have called to you, as well,” the vaguely-humanoid form of “Ansem” moved closer, raising one of its handless sleeve/arms as if he – it was clear that “Ansem” thought of himself as male even in spite of his current lack of a body, and under the circumstances she wasn’t going to be so rude as to ignore a person’s preferred pronouns – was about to clap her on the right shoulder or touch the side of her face or something.

 

When she shifted slightly, just enough so that he would have to move if he wanted to do either of those things, “Ansem” drew back and raised himself to his full height with a subtle dip of what passed for his head. “Come, if the Darkness has indeed lead you this far, then with all your power you must know what’s coming.” He offered her the empty sleeve that passed for his right hand. “Step into Darkness with me; cast off the shackles of this world, and embrace a greater destiny.”

 

Gently pushing his empty right sleeve away with the back of “her” right hand, Sarah locked her gaze firmly on the empty hood that passed for “Ansem’s” head. “Thanks, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline your generous offer.”

 

“What possible reason could you have?” “Ansem” asked, drawing himself back up to his full height.

 

“Call it misplaced sentiment, but I find that I’m rather fond of this world,” she said, leaning back with “her” right foot against the wall of the cavern for when she would need to kick off quickly.

 

“For what reason?”

 

She gave a small, cheerfully mocking smile. “It’s where I keep all of my stuff.” “Ansem” tilted what passed for his head again, clearly not sure of how to respond to such a blunt statement. She laughed briefly. “Oh, I _wish_ I could have seen your face when I said that.” She blew out the last of the breath she’d drawn in, becoming serious again as befitted the situation. “Still, there are other considerations I find more important for the time being.”

 

“Such as?”

 

“This world is collapsing; I can almost feel it, and I’m nearly certain that the tipping-point is going to come some time tomorrow. What I want from you is to know if there’s any way to prevent what I can see coming.”

 

“Your powers haven’t shown you that?” he asked, sounding pleased and intrigued both at once.

 

“There are too many variables; all of my actions open up entirely new paths that the future might take. All I’d like from you is a little certainty.”

 

“Ansem” chuckled deeply in whatever passed for his throat. “That is something I think a great many of us would prefer to have more of than we do,” he tilted his empty hood once more, and Sarah got the impression of deep scrutiny. “I could easily offer it to you.”

 

She smiled thinly. “Sorry; I’m not buying what you’re selling, Ansem.”

 

“Then I suppose we have nothing further to discus, strange girl,” he said, his tone carrying the hint of a rather pleased smile. “I will enjoy seeing you again, once this world has fallen into Darkness.”

 

With that last – cryptic as all fuck – statement, the faceless disembodied form of “Ansem”, or whatever the fuck that convoluted name that she couldn’t quite recall at the moment was, stepped backwards and vanished into the aether from wherever the fuck he’d come from in the first place.

 

 _I guess that makes two, now_ , she mused, finishing the mushroom that she’d picked before her little confab with “Ansem”. It was kind of strange to think about, that there were now two people here who’d spotted her “under the skin” so to speak. Of course, “Ansem’s” whole being disembodied deal might have given him something of an unfair advantage as far as seeing beyond the surface of things, but that wouldn’t do a thing to explain Kairi. There was also the fact that Kairi had seemed to require special circumstances to see her as she was, whereas “Ansem” had seemed to spot her right away.

 

There were too many things to consider, and no way to even know where to start narrowing them down.

 

It was annoying, but then finding out just what was going on with those two wasn’t really a pertinent point right now; all she had to do was survive what was coming. Pushing off of the wall she’d been leaning against, Sarah got back to “her” feet and made her way back out of the cavern she’d been standing in.

 

When she made it back out, standing for a few, long moments under the gathering dusk, Sarah turned to see Kairi making her way over. The expression on the other girl’s face was one of concerned curiosity, and for a moment Sarah wondered what her first question would be. She wasn’t given long for such musings, however.

 

“Sarah, is what’s going on here really that unbelievable?”

 

“Honest question? Yes; it really is.”

 

“Why?”

 

She shrugged. “Well, think about it: if you hadn’t discovered my situation for yourself, would _you_ have believed someone if they told you about it?”

 

Kairi looked away, a sheepish expression on her face. “I’d like to say the answer to that was yes, but…”

 

“You don’t really know that, do you?” she asked, picking up where Kairi had trailed off.

 

“No, I guess I don’t,” the other girl said, turning back with a sort of self-depreciating smile on her face. “Sorry for putting you on the spot like that, Sarah.”

 

“It’s all right,” she said, shrugging easily to let the other girl know that there were no hard feelings. “You seemed pretty excited about the whole thing.”

 

Kairi laughed softly. “I guess, being from another world, all of this must seem pretty normal to you.”

 

She laughed outright. “Actually, you’d be surprised just how rare this kind of thing is. In fact,” she said, debating for a moment about whether or not to try explaining the concept of television shows before deciding what the hell. “There’s only one guy I know of who does things like this, and I’ve never personally met him. His name’s Sam Beckett.”

 

 _Or, if you want to be pedantic about things, Scott Bakula,_ she mused, wondering again just what kind of popular culture these people had. She was hardly a cultural anthropologist, though, and on top of that she was only going to have one more morning on this planet before everything went to hell in a handbasket. Hardly enough time to get her things in order, much less start any kind of study.

 

“What are you thinking about, Sarah?” Kairi asked, firmly derailing her train of thought.

 

She smiled; no point in dragging the other girl down with thoughts of something that seemed all but inevitable at this point. “The future.”

 

“It’s nice to think about the future sometimes, Sarah,” the other girl said, wrapping both of her arms around Sora’s right. “But there’s a whole world, right here and now, that you’ll miss out on if you spend too much time only thinking about the future.”

 

She laughed softly. “You’re right.”

 

Kairi smiled up at her, and then tilted her head slightly, as if she wanted to ask something but wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it. Then she closed her eyes briefly, laughing soundlessly at herself. “Sarah, do you think you’d mind singing a bit more? Just for me?”

 

She shrugged; it wasn’t like Riku could be hiding out in any of the sparse foliage around the path they were taking, especially not in those garish colors he was wearing. “I don’t see why not.”

 

“Could you sing another song from your world?” Kairi asked eagerly.

 

She laughed again. “Well, considering that I don’t know any songs from around here, I pretty much have to.”

 

Kairi looked down, smiling sheepishly, at that pronouncement. “Yeah. I guess I keep forgetting that you’re from somewhere else.”

 

“I guess that’s a pretty easy thing to do, what with this face looking back at you and all,” she said, offering what comfort she could, while part of her mind turned over the question of just what song she was going to sing.

 

The first melody that came to mind prompted a bark of amused laughter; _that_ one was hardly something you got into with a person who didn’t know the lyrics.

 

“What’s so funny, Sarah?”

 

“Just had an idea, but I don’t think it’s going to work out,” she said, still rather amused by the whole thing.

 

“What do you mean?” Kairi asked, sounding genuinely curious.

 

“Well, almost all of the songs I sang, even though they did have bands backing them up, had one lead singer and that was it. The one I just thought of now, though, has three lead singers, each with their own part of the song. It just feels kind of weird to me, singing along to the parts of three different people, when they’re all having a sort of conversation with each other.”

 

Kairi smiled brightly at her after she’d finished saying that. “Why don’t I sing one of the other parts, then? And then we can both sing the third part together?”

 

She laughed. “Well, that would be great, Kairi, except for the part where you don’t know any of my songs any more than I know any of yours.”

 

Kairi grinned, clearly undaunted by something so simple as logic. “Well, no I don’t, but I’m sure I could follow along with the music just as well as you do.”

 

She smiled. “Well, if there was any music playing in those instances, I’m sure you could.”

 

Kairi’s pleased expression slipped, becoming one of confusion. “You mean, you couldn’t hear it?”

 

She raised an eyebrow, folding “her” arms and tilting “her” head slightly. “Hear what, Kairi? There was nothing else _to_ hear, aside from my singing.”

 

Kairi chewed her lower lip for a long moment, seeming to consider just what it was that she was going to say next. “I guess you really _couldn’t_ hear any of them; any of those drums, or the men who were singing the songs. Or that nice-sounding lady who sang the traveling song, either.”

 

She chewed the inside of Sora’s left cheek, considering the implications of what Kairi had just revealed to her, and what it might mean given what she already knew about the other girl. “I’ve heard those songs before,” she said at last, deciding to lay a few more of her cards on the table. “In fact, I’ve played them so many times by now that I’ve practically memorized not only the lyrics, but the rhythm and the beat, too. I know those songs pretty much by heart, as we say on my planet.”

 

Kairi smiled, even laughing softly. “You know them by heart,” she muttered, reaching out to press her right hand against the center of Sora’s chest. “Maybe that’s why I can hear them, too.” She looked back up, still with that gentle expression. “Will you sing it, please? I’d like to hear it, even if I can’t see anything this time.”

 

“Sure,” she said, more than a bit curious herself by this time. “I heard you on the wireless back in ’52, lying awake intently tuning in on you; if I was young, it didn’t stop you comin’ through.”

 

“Oh-oh,” Kairi sang in counterpoint.

 

Sarah allowed herself a small smile. “They took the credit for your second symphony, rewritten by machine on new technology; and now I understand the problems you could see.” She felt Kairi’s hands gripping “hers” a bit more tightly; it seemed like the other girl really _could_ hear the music that accompanied the songs Sarah sang.

 

It probably would have seemed stranger, if she hadn’t known what Kairi actually was.

 

“Oh-oh,” Kairi sang cheerfully in counterpoint, already starting to move with the music that only she could truly hear.

 

“I met your children.”

 

“Oh-oh.”

 

“What did you tell them?”

 

“Oh-oh,” Kairi pulled her a bit closer, swinging the both of them around in a dance step that reminded her a fair bit of the Mysterious Figure and everything that had happened before.

 

“Video killed the radio star; video killed the radio star.”

 

“Pictures came, and broke your heart,” she sang in counterpoint, as the two of them separated as far as their still-clasped left and right hands would allow them to, both still dancing to the music’s rhythm.

 

“Oh oh-oh-oh-oh.”

 

“And now we meet in an abandoned studio, we hear the playback and it seems so long ago; and you remember, the jingles used to go.”

 

“Oh-oh.”

 

“You were the first one.” She pulled Kairi in close, and the two of them grinned at each other.

 

“Oh-oh.”

 

“You were the last one.” The two of them separated again, step-dancing all the way.

 

“Video killed the radio star; video killed the radio star.”

 

“In my mind, and in my car; we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far.”

 

“Oh oh-oh-oh-oh. Oh oh-oh-oh-oh.”

 

As the drums picked up, she and Kairi swung around each other more enthusiastically, moving with the increasing tempo of the song.

 

“Video killed the radio star; video killed the radio star.”

 

“In my mind, and in my car; we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far. Pictures came, and broke your heart; put the blame on VCR.”

 

The two of them continued step-dancing, both grinning widely now. “You are, a radio. You are, a radio star.”

 

“Video killed the radio star,” Kairi sang back at her, and then burst out laughing. “That was really fun, Sarah,” the other girl said.

 

“I’m glad you liked it,” she said, smiling back.

 

She didn’t say anything stupidly obvious about having proof of what Kairi was saying now or anything, because both of them could see that that was the case now, and it would have been an insult to their respective intelligences if she had.

 

“Do you know any more songs like that?” Kairi asked, her eyes still shining with excitement and a wide smile on her face.

 

“I know a few,” she allowed, as the two of them continued making their way back down to the dock. “But it’s getting late, and I’m fairly sure your parents would want to throttle me if I kept you out after dark.”

 

Kairi laughed. “You’re so weird, Sarah.” Looking back at “her”, the other girl’s expression changed, becoming one of calm, gentle happiness. “You know, Sarah,” the other girl said, wrapping her arms around Sora’s torso and squeezing lightly. “If I had a big sister, I’d want her to be just like you.”

 

“That’s a nice sentiment,” she said, wrapping “her” arms around Kairi in turn.

 

It was a bit one-sided, of course; there were a lot of things about her that Kairi didn’t know, and probably wouldn’t approve of, given her personality. But the sentiment was nice, all the same.

 

When Kairi laughed softly, turning a gently amused grin on her, Sarah raised an eyebrow at the other girl. “You really do have a lot of music in your heart.” She leaned against Sora’s chest for a long moment. “We’ll sing some more tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah, tomorrow then,” she said, clamping down on every last scrap of uneasiness she felt, so that she wouldn’t display them with “her” face or “her” stance.

 

For this world, tomorrow wouldn’t come; damn Riku and his short-sighted stupidity. And damn “Ansem”, too. Idiots, the pair of them.

 

As she and Kairi made it back to the dock at last, both launching their respective boats and climbing inside as they began to row, Sarah wondered for a moment just what song Kairi had heard. She hadn’t really been thinking of any in particular, not like those times she’d been singing, and she had to admit to being a bit curious about the whole thing. But she honestly had more pressing matters on her mind; Zero Hour was coming fast, and it seemed it wasn’t going to be diverted by anything she did here and now.

 

So she needed to make time for her final preparations, not allow herself to be distracted by every stray thought that came her way.

 

The two of them landed their boats, pulling them up onto the shore before climbing out.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sarah,” the other girl said, giving “her” a quick hug and a peck on the right cheek.

 

“Bye, Kairi,” she said, waving as the other girl left the docks behind; she smiled up until Kairi had left her field of view. “Good luck,” she muttered, once the other girl was just out of sight.

 


	16. Storm Rider

With a soft sigh, Sarah turned and made her way back to Sora’s house; looked like not everyone could cancel an apocalypse.

 

Reaching Sora’s house’s front door, Sarah laughed inwardly as she found herself raising “her” right hand to knock at it. Opening said door instead, Sarah made her way inside and closed it behind her.

 

“Hey, I’m home!” she called out, hoping that that was at least reasonably close to what Sora himself might say in the same situation.

 

“Welcome back, Sora dear!” Sora’s mom called from the kitchen. “Why don’t you go wash up? We’re going to be having dinner soon!”

 

“Thanks, I’ll get right to it!” she called back, pleased to know that she would at least be getting a last meal here before the end of this world.

 

Making her way to the house’s bathroom, Sarah washed and dried “her” hands; and was once again supremely grateful that she didn’t feel the need to do anything else. When she left the bathroom, hands clean once more after the days activities, Sarah found herself falling into step with a man that looked a lot like what Sora himself would probably look like in twenty or so years.

 

“Hey, Dad,” she greeted easily, since that was obviously who this was.

 

“Hey, sport,” Sora’s father greeted the one wearing his son’s form.

 

Sarah ruthlessly strangled a sudden flash of irrational guilt; seriously, her subconscious could be really anal about the weirdest things. It wasn’t like anyone who wasn’t completely insane, or Nostradamus himself, could have predicted this kind of shit going down.

 

“I bet you can’t wait to have some of your mom’s delicious fish, eh Sport?”

 

“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it,” she said absently.

 

Zero Hour was looming ever closer, as this day of days inexorably drew to a close.

 

“Ah, are you thinking about the mayor’s adopted daughter again>” Sora’s father asked, grinning teasingly at who he couldn’t help but think was his son. “Kairi, right?”

 

“Maybe,” she said, going for that same, sheepish tone that she figured Sora would use under the same circumstances.

 

Sora’s father laughed heartily. She’d previously noticed that his jaw line was far more square than Sora’s own, so it was clear that Sora had inherited his mother’s facial-structure.

 

“There’s nothing wrong with that, son,” Sora’s father – Sarah almost wished she could ask him his name, but that just wasn’t going to be possible – said, clapping “her” firmly on the back. “Back when I was your age, I had _my_ first crush, too.”

 

“It was Mom, wasn’t it?” she asked, wondering what kind of answer she was going to get.

 

Sure, this was a Disney-influenced world, but when you came right down to it, these people weren’t actually Disney characters. Hell, Sora’s father hadn’t even been a character at all – a step down even from his wife, who was at least barely a character – and here she was chatting away with him. It was, to say the least, a rather interesting situation.

 

Sora’s father laughed heartily, ruffling Sora’s hair as the two of them continued on their way to the kitchen. “Yes, you little scamp; it _was_ your mother.”

 

They arrived at the kitchen just before Sora’s father had finished speaking, and Sora’s mother turned to look at them from where she was standing at the stove. “What was me, dear?”

 

“Only the first, and greatest, love of my life,” Sora’s father stated enthusiastically, striding over to kiss his wife with that same gusto.

 

Sarah laughed silently, before turning away just enough to give them at least the illusion of privacy.

 

“Sora, honey? Could you please set the table for us?”

 

“Sure,” she said; she’d already explored the kitchen once, so she at least knew where most of the stuff was.

 

And really, anyone could see where the drying-rack that held the dishes and other things of that ilk was.

 

Once she’d finished setting the table, and the rest of Sora’s small family had settled down to eat, Sarah noticed yet another difference between the way Sora’s family took their meals and the way her own did: at the Williams family dinner table they would have at least had sodas. Fish, especially what tasted like one of the blander kinds like – this planet’s equivalent of – cod, never seemed to taste quite as good without it. Soon enough, however, the meal was over and done with and Sora’s parents were beginning to clean up the kitchen and set it back to rights.

 

The two of them laughed softly, the gentle clinking of dishes and the sound of running water letting Sarah know just what it was that they were currently doing, even though “her” back was squarely turned to them in her current position. She wondered idly what they were talking about, and more than that, she wondered about _them_.

 

What did the two of them do for a living? What were their hopes for the future, aside from those that every good parent had? What had they sacrificed in pursuit of the life they had now, and did they ever regret any of it?

 

Those weren’t really questions that she could actually ask or hope to have answered, however; more idle speculation to avoid thinking about the fact that she was leaving these people – as kind as they had been to a visiting stranger – to their fates while she made her escape from the impending end of the world.

 

When she felt someone kissing her on the crown of “her” skull, Sarah looked up to see Sora’s mother smiling knowingly – and a bit mischievously, upon closer inspection – down at who she thought was her son. “Don’t stay up _all_ night thinking, Sora honey. This may not be a school night, but you’re a growing boy, and you still need your rest.”

 

“Okay, Mom,” Sarah said, feeling just a bit horrible for the slight twinge of satisfaction that she’d felt at knowing she wouldn’t be using those terms again anytime soon. “Good night.”

 

“Good night, Sora honey,” Sora’s mother said, smiling over her left shoulder as she turned to leave the kitchen.

 

She held the smile on “her” face until Sora’s mother had left the room, then let the expression fall away like the mask it really was.

 

“Sorry,” she muttered, once the room was clear of everyone but her again. _Time to go to work,_ she mused, quickly rising from her seat and making for the fridge.

 

Gathering up her packed food, as well as the thermoses of milk that she had poured for herself, Sarah shut the door and quickly grabbed the thermos sitting unobtrusively to the right of the fridge itself. With all of her provisions gathered at last, Sarah shifted them so that she had at least _one_ arm free while she made her way back to the kitchen door. Turning off the light as she passed the switch, Sarah was just in time to witness the house being – just barely – illuminated by a sudden flash of light from outside the walls, followed by a muffled _boom_ that let her know just what was coming.

 

“ _Fuck!_ ” she snarled.

 

Zero Hour was upon them, right here and now. She’d expected it to come soon, sure, but she’d expected to have had at _least_ an hour of sleep beforehand. Either she’d miscalculated – always a possibility considering how long it’d been since she’d last played this particular game – or else her presence here was already causing events to slide ever-so-slightly off the rails. She also hadn’t watched her favorite playthrough of this particular game in long enough that she’d forgotten the specifics of what happened when.

 

Having run the rest of the way back to Sora’s room, Sarah quickly packed away the rest of her provisions, zipped the pack back up, checked to make sure the duffel was secure enough to withstand some fairly substantial turbulence, slung the pack and duffel combo securely onto “her” back, and hit the window in front of her with a palm-heel strike that had the two halves out of her way quick as anyone could ask for. Vaulting over the sill, Sarah hit the ground running, quickly compensating for the weight of the pack she was working against. Settling down in Sora’s boat, she had a quickly-dismissed moment of frustration over the make of said boat.

 

What she really needed now was a sea-kayak.

 

Throwing herself fully into the motions of rowing said boat, Sarah left her frustration back on the island as it receded behind her. Leaping out onto the dock, her remaining emotions left behind in the boat, Sarah grabbed an emerging Shadow by the neck and used it as a shield while she bull-rushed the others. She was peripherally aware of the terrain passing by on either side of her as she ran, so she at least knew where and when to turn as she kept going, but most of her focus was taken up by the growing crowds of Heartless as they emerged from the ground around her.

 

They cleared once she’d pelted across the old bridge to the smallest of the islands, so Sarah tossed the oddly-docile Shadow she’d used to smash her way through the crowds into the drink and continued on her way up to the little idiot who’d had the most immediate hand in their present situation.

 

“The door has opened, Sora!” said idiot called out, with an enthusiasm that really only served to piss her off more.

 

“Congratulations,” she said, lips pulling back from “her” teeth in an expression that could _almost_ be mistaken for a smile. Riku seemed _surprised_ when “her” fist smashed into his face. “I’m _so_ happy for you.”

 

 _Well, there it is,_ she mused, looking up into what remained of the sky. _The un-light at the end of the world._

 

She wondered, for a long few moments, if she’d been given enough time, there was some way she could have prevented this. Still, the groundwork for this particular scenario had probably been laid a long time ago. Really, that was pretty much how these things worked in the first place: everything that looked huge and insurmountable had required innumerable small steps – most of them probably seeming completely harmless when looked at separately – to set up.

 

“Sarah, it’s time,” the mysterious voice said, sounding like he was speaking right into “her” ears; or maybe from inside her mind. “You know what’s coming now; good luck.”

 

“Yeah,” she muttered, pausing for a moment to take in the Keyblade in “her” right hand. “Thanks.”

 

Readjusting the straps of her supply-pack so that the weight was more evenly distributed – even though fighting with an encumbrance was really more something she preferred to avoid – Sarah dashed back across the plank bridge, Keyblade held in a two-handed grip like a Louisville Slugger.

 

Beating her way through the ranks of Shadows attempting to bear her down under the sheer weight of their ever-increasing numbers, she only briefly registered the fact that the entrance to the cavern where she’d exchanged words with “Ansem” did indeed look like an undersized Stargate, before she threw herself through the false event horizon and ran full-tilt down the tunnel that wound away in front of her.

 

Slamming “her” left foot down at a slight angle to “her” right to cancel her remaining forward-momentum, Sarah concentrated on breathing slowly and deeply as Kairi – what was left of her, anyway – turned to look back at her.

 

“Not your fault,” the other girl said softly, looking about as sickly as she had in the cutscene.

 

“I know,” she said, as the other girl was pretty much launched at her by a torrent of anti-light that burst right out of the door.

 

Bracing her stance, turning outward so that she would face her new battlefield when she reached it, Sarah also braced the Keyblade across “her” chest and crouched as she rode the wave of anti-light – or Darkness, or what have you – back out onto what little remained of her current battlefield.

 

She would have been rather interested, under other circumstances, to observe her surroundings – since this kind of thing wasn’t something she’d ever seen before – but these were hardly ideal circumstances for that. Besides, the towering form of the Darkside – Darkside-Mercer again, she noted briefly – let her know that this wasn’t the time for sightseeing. Dashing across the crumbling remains of their battlefield, Sarah moved to confront said fuckhuge Heartless.

 

When it slammed its left hand into the ground, Sarah launched herself forward, clinging with leech-like tenacity to the thing’s left thumb, even as she shifted so that she was hanging upside-down from her legs and hence could get a good, two-handed grip on the Keyblade. She whaled on the Darkside after that, beating the ever-loving shit out of its most easily-accessible weakness, until she felt the substance of the gigantic Heartless crumbling away beneath her.

 

Gravity had fully reversed itself on her at that point, and as she folded “her” body into a neat swan-dive, Sarah could swear – just for a handful of moments – that she was hearing music, too.

 

As her vision cleared – after a bit too long trying to interpret sensory input that made _no fucking sense_ – Sarah kick-flipped to right herself in the air, as a certain back alley in Traverse Town became all the more easily-distinguishable from every other alley and side-street around it.

 

Crouching to lessen the impact and improve her own stability as gravity reasserted itself, Sarah pulled out her travel journal and quickly made her first entry for this world.


	17. Journal Entry: 4

_Welcome to Traverse Town, Sarah Williams; you know, of all the sentences I never thought I’d have to write, that one had to be way up on the list. In the top three, at least._

_Still, I suppose there are plenty of worse places that I could have ended up; the machine war future from the “Terminator” franchise, anywhere in Silent Hill, somewhere between Earth and the Orbital Ring in “Tekkaman/Teknoman”, or the Warhammer 40k ‘verse in general. Still, just because this isn’t the ass-end of creation, with everything trying to kill me, doesn’t mean I’m particularly happy to be here._

_I’m still looking for a way back home, but sometimes the only way out is through._

_I just hope Sora’s not freaking out too much if he is stuck in my body. Still, Dad and my brothers will probably be able to handle him, especially given the fact that he probably never had the idea to try passing himself off as me._

_He seems like a pretty straightforward kind of guy._

_Anyway, Pluto’s going to be coming soon, so I guess I should sign off now; I’ve got meetings to make._


	18. Nights in Traverse Town

Once she’d finished with that, Sarah slung the backpack-duffel combo off of “her” back, unzipping it so that she could reach the prepared foods and drinks that she had packed for herself.

 

“Hello.”

 

“Oh, hey,” she greeted off-handedly; the voice sounded kind of familiar, but she’d just been in combat, and she didn’t actually know when she was going to have the time free for another meal.

 

So she honestly had other things on her mind.

 

“That’s a good idea, carrying food along with you. Would you mind sharing one?”

 

“I guess I could spare at least one,” she said, having finished digging out the pack with her food, grabbing a thermos of milk in passing. “I mean, with this big a city, you figure there have to be at least a _few_ restaurants around.” She straightened up, finally getting a good look at just who it was she’d been talking to. _Huh,_ she mused in response.

 

“There are,” Mickey Mouse, King of Disney Castle, smiled back at her. “I could even recommend a few places to you,” his face fell. “If I had the time.”

 

“Which would you prefer? Ham or turkey?” she asked, not particularly wanting to keep Mickey any longer than he could afford to stay.

 

“Oh,” he exclaimed, looking briefly surprised and then smiling kindly. “Ham, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Sure.” She was really more partial to turkey than to ham, so this worked out well for the pair of them. “You want something to wash it down with? I have water or milk,” she continued, not about to part with the single thermos of hot cocoa she had prepared for herself.

 

“Well, if you really don’t mind, I would like some milk,” Mickey said.

 

“All right.” Extracting two thermoses of milk from her supply-pack, she handed one over to Mickey.

 

“You’re very generous,” the anthropomorphic mouse said, just as Sarah had a thought.

 

“It’s not quite freshly-chilled, but it should still be good.”

 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Mickey said, gently patting the back of “her” left hand.

 

Then, he reached into the right pocket of the cloak that he was wearing – it looked a bit Organization XII-ish – and pulled out a bag which he quickly handed over. “Here.”

 

Taking the bad after she’d set the thermos in “her” left hand back inside her supply-pack, she weighed it briefly, shaking the thing a bit to determine just what was inside. “What’s this for?”

 

“Well, you’ll want to be able to get food, after you run out of those sandwiches,” he said, smiling widely. “And, since you were so generous to me, it’s really only right that I return that generosity.”

 

“Well, thank you, then,” she said, tucking the bag of Munny away in Sora’s left pocket.

 

“You’re very welcome,” Mickey said. “I’ve got to go now, but it was nice talking with you.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled once again. “I’ve got some friends out here, so if you happen to meet them, stick close. They won’t steer you wrong.”

 

“Do they look like you? Or, how will I know them when I see them?” she asked, in spite of the fact that she already knew full-well what Donald and Goofy looked like; and how much she’d wanted to punch Donald in the face in-game.

 

“I didn’t even think of that,” Mickey said, with a rueful sort of chuckle. “Here,” he continued, reaching into the left side of his cloak and pulling out a pair of photos. “These should help,” he said, as he handed them over.

 

Sarah took them quickly, curious about just what kind of photos King Mickey would have taken of his courtiers. They turned out to be simple portraits, showing their subjects clearly from the mid-chest up, which drew a brief chuckle out of her. “Well, at least I can say I’ll know ‘em when I see ‘em.”

 

“That’s good,” Mickey said, reaching up to firmly pat “her” left shoulder as he turned to leave. “Thanks again for sharing your food,” he said, nodding toward the two items he now carried in the crook of his left arm.

 

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing, by the way.”

 

Mickey laughed softly. “Thank you. And good luck to you, with whatever happens next.”

 

He’d passed out of her line-of sight – not a particularly hard thing to do when one took the alleyway they’d both been standing in into consideration – before she could say anything else in response, so Sarah went back to eating her sandwich. Sure, that’d been a fairly abrupt end to their conversation, but everything that needed to be said had been said, and His Royal Highness King Mickey probably had a crapton of things to do with regard to the Heartless invasion and suchlike.

 

The sound of scuffling footsteps drew her attention back to the mouth of the alleyway she was standing in. Pluto was standing there, tongue out as he panted, clearly having run to see just what had fallen into this particular alleyway.

 

Naturally, he looked a lot less “cartoon dog-ish” now that she was seeing him with all the filters off, so to speak. The best she could come up with to describe what he looked like, without resorting to massive over description, was a Greyhound crossed with a Yellow Lab. He had a Greyhound’s leggy body, with a Lab’s coloring and floppy ears.

 

All in all, it was certainly an interesting combination.

 

Pluto barked happily, prompting a gentle chuckle. “Good evening to you, too, boy.” Pluto trotted easily up to her, seeming like he had not a care in the world; she laughed outright. “Well boy, I _would_ pet you, but I always make it a point not to get dog on my hands while I’m eating.” She chewed and swallowed another bite of her turkey sandwich. “So I guess you’re out of luck, if you don’t feel like waiting.”

 

Once she’d finished saying that, however, Pluto sat down neatly in front of her, thin, short-furred black tail wagging enthusiastically. Chuckling deeply in “her” throat, Sarah leaned back against the wall of the alleyway she’d landed in, finishing her turkey sandwich at a leisurely pace, and then having some of her milk to wash it down with. Tucking the thermos back into her supply-pack, she zipped it back up and then hefted the thing back onto “her” back.

 

Reaching out, she scruffed Pluto’s floppy, black ears as the dog himself panted happily and pressed his head against “her” hands and stomach in his sheer enthusiasm. Just as she’d been about to stop on her own, however, Pluto pulled his head back, barked once, then turned to head for the mouth of the alleyway they were both still standing in. His intentions probably would have been obvious even to someone who _didn’t_ have a dog, but Sarah would have been the first to admit that she wasn’t in the best position to speak for those people.

 

Following Pluto out of the alley and into Traverse Town’s First District, Sarah reflected on what else was most likely going on with two of the future members of her party. If she hadn’t skewed the timeline too much by being conscious when she arrived, Donald and Goofy were probably on their way to meet with Squall; she swallowed a chuckle as she once again recalled just how much TheHelldragon had hated the first game’s insistence on calling him Leon. Sure, she thought it was kind of dumb and arbitrary herself, but to hear TheHelldragon say it, it was the Wurst Thing Evar.

 

That, and his rather amusing bat-related rants, were some of the many reasons she had kept watching the Hellfire Commentaries LP of Kingdom Hearts even after she’d pretty much lost interest in the game itself. In fact, the only LPer that Sarah could honestly say that she liked as much as the Hellfire Commentaries crew was Skorch82, and he’d never played any Disney games as far as she knew. Or at least he didn’t LP them, which worked out really well when you thought about it.

 

When Pluto led her to Cid’s item shop, he nosed “her” right hand and she gently scruffed his ears in return. “Thanks, boy.”

 

She was becoming steadily more conscious of the fact that she hadn’t gotten any sleep since this whole fiasco had started. The minor fatigue that had been so easy to push aside when she’d been riding the adrenaline-rush of combat was starting to drag more heavily at her, now that everything had started calmed down. The food had helped a bit, since at least she wasn’t dealing with a blood-sugar imbalance on top of being tired – she didn’t know how in the hell the real Sora would have managed, not knowing what she knew – but she at least hoped that Cid would have _some_ place that she could crash for awhile.

 

If only so she wasn’t forced to curl up against the nearest convenient patch of wall and fall asleep sitting up; sure, she could do that when circumstances demanded it, but she never felt quite as rested afterward.

 

Pushing the door to Cid’s item shop open, she saw the man himself turn to greet “her”.

 

“Ah, it’s just a kid,” he groused.

 

She scoffed. “Nice to meet _you_ , too.”

 

He actually laughed in response. “All right, kid; you got me.” He peered closer. “You look bushed.”

 

“I’ve had an interesting day.” She gripped the straps of Sora’s backpack in “her” fists, turning to give the man a half-lidded I-have-had-fully-enough-of-this-shit look. “I think I’m beginning to _hate_ interesting days.”

 

Cid laughed ruefully. “I think we could all use a bit less excitement in our lives, kid.” He gave “her” another, closer once-over, and then a subtle nod. “Why don’t you take a nap? I got a couch that nobody uses much lately, and you really look like you could use the sleep.”

 

“Thanks,” she said, covering a yawn with “her” left hand, and slipping Sora’s backpack off. “I’ve got some food in here, so if you wouldn’t mind sticking it into a cooler or a fridge or something like that, I’d really appreciate it,” she said, trying and failing to hold back a yawn as she made her way toward the indicated couch.

 

“I’ll take care of it, kid,” she heard from behind her, as she rested “her” right hand on the couch – which fortunately enough seemed to be upholstered with some kind of velvety fabric and not something uncomfortable like leather – and hoisted “herself” up onto it so that she could stretch out.

 

~KH1~

 

“You’ll need it,” Cid muttered, as the kid he’d taken under his wing – not that he was ever going to admit that to anyone – pulled down the third pillow from the couch and stuck it under his head.

 

Poor kid must still think he was dreaming or something; kid probably lost his whole world, and all he had left was the stuff on his back. That was the only way anyone ever came to Traverse Town.

 

Coming out from behind his counter, since he’d told the kid that he would take care of his food, and if there was one thing that Cid Highwind never did, it was go back on his word, he picked up the backpack. Surprised to find that the thing was fairly hefty, Cid unzipped it and began to remove the contents a bit at a time.

 

The packed sandwiches and thermoses filled with milk he quickly put away in his minifridge, but the last of the insulated bottles had been filled with what he’d first figured had to be some kind of tea that the kid had milked to within an inch of its life, but a quick sniff of the contents of that particular bottle proved it to be some other kind of drink. Smelled sweet as hell, but then it pretty much figured that a kid would be bringing along drinks like that. Still, it’d clearly been heated at one point and was starting to go cold, and he knew better than most just how shitty it was to end up drinking something lukewarm when you’d prepared it piping hot.

 

So, grabbing the hotplate he’d he used to prepare himself small meals, and one of the small pans from his collection, he poured out the contents of that particular bottle, and set the pan on the hotplate to heat up again.

 

The rest of the stuff he found in the kid’s pack wasn’t particularly interesting, although when he realized he’d been handling rolled-up underwear he was particularly glad that there was no one around to give him shit about it. There were only two – well, five if you wanted to be an asshole about it – things that were really interesting about the contents of the kid’s pack; the first of them was the kit, clearly for taking care of small scrapes and cuts and other crap like that, that the kid’s mom had probably fixed up for him; the other was the set of kitchen knives, four in all and wrapped in a towel, that the kid’s dad had probably slipped him on the sly.

 

“Hell of a camping trip you’re on _now_ , kid,” he muttered, turning to look at the kid napping on his couch.

 

His dad had probably thought he’d be having to fend off wild animals when he’d slipped the kid those knives. And sure, they’d be shit-worthless against a Heartless, but it never hurt to have a set of fallback weapons. Not all of their enemies were Heartless, after all.

 

_~KH1~_

 

_-Stray; no regret ‘cause I’ve got nothing to lose…-_

 

Loud whoops and hollers echoed down the side of the snow-covered mountain – it wouldn’t have looked out of place in Robotnik Winter, White Acropolis, or Hill Top Zone – as a trio of snowboarders raced down the side of it, each leaving snowy rooster-tails kicked up behind them. The once in the lead wore a full-body, padded white snowsuit and dark, polarized ski-goggles; both intended to insulate against an accidental tumble into the snow, as well as protect against the climates where snow was found.

 

The figure in the center, clearly female, was wearing a pale lilac skort, a white tank top, and largish shoes of nearly the same color as the skort. The outfit that she was wearing – in stark contrast to that worn by both the first figure and by the third – had clearly been chosen with warm summer days and tropical climes in mind. But the second girl felt no deathly chill, nor did those ahead or behind her feel any excessive heat from their own layers.

 

For this was a place more of mind than of matter.

 

The last of the three could perhaps be called the strangest, and was as clearly male as the one in the center had been female. His outfit was solidly black, and molded to match the musculature beneath his skin. The fact that he wore a featureless, black-visored motorcycle style helmet also made him seem as a color-inverted counterpart to the figure in the white snowsuit – less obviously female, but still female for all that – who lead the trio.

 

“Half-pipe’s coming up!” the girl in the front, the tallest of the three present, called out in cheerful challenge. “You guys think you’re up for it?”

 

“Anytime you are, Sarah!” the girl in the center, the shortest whereas Sarah was the tallest, called back with a wide grin on her face.

 

“Yeah, bring it on!” the boy at the back of their small group shouted, pumping his left fist in sheer enthusiasm.

 

The three of them maneuvered into the half-pipe, each of them riding a wave of their own momentum, until all three of them rode side-by-side down the half-pipesque bobsled track that they were all together on.

 

“All right,” called the boy who had once been at the back of the group and now stood on the left, reaching out to clasp the left hand of the girl who had remained in the middle. “One!”

 

“Two!” the girl herself called, reaching out for Sarah’s left hand while clasping tightly with her own right.

 

“Three,” Sarah herself declared firmly, her left hand locked in a firm – though unfelt – grip on the middle girl’s right.

 

Just that quickly, their entire landscape changed; cloudy blue brightness became an orange-washed sunset sky, snowy hills became an empty city with slowly-whirring fans on vertical posts, and the snowboards that the three of them had been riding became three mine carts on parallel tracks.

 

Laughing, the boy on the left and the girl in the middle settled down in their mine carts for the rest of the ride to their destination. Sarah, for her own part, chuckled softly at the antics of her two compatriots, and then lay back in her own mine cart to watch the sunset-stained clouds go by.

 

When said clouds had been obscured by the roof of a tunnel, its blue-tinted running lights slowly separating into more distinct glowing rectangles as their respective mine carts were slowed to a stop, Sarah laughed and sat up inside the mine cart she’d been riding in. “Last stop, Sunset Park station,” Sarah announced, using the stereotypical P.A. announcer’s voice that she’d heard from so many movies and television shows. “We’d like to thank you for, once again, giving your business to Crazy Larry’s Transdimensional Mine Carts. Please do tell your friends about us.”

 

The girl in the middle, who had just been starting to get out of her own mine cart, fell right back in as she curled up with laughter.

 

“You want any help there, Kairi?” Sarah asked, making her way over to the mine cart where the other, smaller girl still sat, the occasional chuckle still escaping her at times.

 

“Sure,” Kairi said, reaching out to take Sarah’s right hand as the taller girl offered it to her. Kairi laughed softly, as the three of them moved away from the mine cart rails and deeper into the station. “You’re so weird, Sarah.”

 

Sarah chuckled in return. “I’ve been told it’s one of my most endearing qualities.”

 

Both Kairi and the nameless, masked boy who had gotten out of his own mine cart and caught up with the two of them, laughed then. The three of them made their way into a large, high-ceilinged room, filled with indistinct shadows that rushed from one side of the room to the other – in from a much larger entrance at the far end of the room, and out an exit that somehow seemed even larger – on their way to important destinations known only to themselves.

 

“What is this place, Sarah?”

 

“South San Francisco train station,” Sarah said, tilting her head slightly as she watched a particularly large group of shadows leave through the exit and be replaced just as quickly.

 

“Why does everyone seem to be in such a hurry?” the masked boy asked, his tone and body language communicating the confusion that his hidden face would have otherwise displayed.

 

Sarah chuckled softly, though more reflectively than anything. “No one stays in a train station longer than they have to,” Sarah debated for a moment whether or not to bring up the people who _would_ be staying at a train station longer than anyone really needed to be – namely pan-handlers, homeless people, and thieves – but soon decided that that would only confuse the issue; particularly since the only people they might know of who fit that second category were those who had had their world devoured by the Heartless. “It’s a place you go to get where you want to be, not a place you really go for the place itself.”

 

Again, unless one truly felt that they had no other choice.

 

“Oh, so it’s just somewhere that people on your world go to when they want to go somewhere _else_?” Kairi asked, cocking her head in surprise, even as she settled down on the bench that Sarah had lead the three of them to. “That seems kind of strange.”

 

“Are there a lot of places like this on your world?” the masked boy asked, looking from the rushing, shadowed forms that might have been people on Sarah’s world, back to Sarah herself.

 

Sarah smiled a soft, nostalgic smile. “Oh, there are plenty of places like this; both inside the country and out of it.” She tilted her head slightly, tucking her hands into the pockets of the well-worn pair of gray sweatpants that the lower half of her snowsuit had transformed into. “There are bus stops, train stations just like this one, airports, and you can even call a taxicab to pick you up from home. It all depends on just how far you want to travel.”

 

“Wow,” both Kairi and the masked boy said, almost at the same time; their voices nearly blended as one.

 

“There are so many ways to travel on your world,” Kairi said, smiling brightly at the tallest member of their group. “It must be a great place to live,” Kairi’s smile shrank, becoming more reflective. “No wonder you want to get back there; I’d kind of like to live there, myself.”

 

Sarah turned to look at Kairi, studying the other girl more closely. “Was it really so bad, back where you came from?”

 

Kairi shook her head, looking a bit sheepish. “I wouldn’t say it was _bad_ , Sarah. It just felt a little small, sometimes.” Kairi looked back out into the crowd of shadowed figures; they hadn’t stopped moving, not even once. “Of course, maybe your world’s just so big, with so many things to see and do on it, you don’t understand how small a world can really be.”

 

“I’ve heard small towns are like that, but you’re right in that I’ve never actually lived in one,” Sarah said, still studying Kairi from where she sat on the other girl’s right.

 

Kairi smiled back at the other girl. “Thanks, Sarah.”

 

_~KH1~_

 

She yawned, sniffing the air as lucidity, and hence awareness of her actual surroundings, slowly bled back into her mind.

 

“Have a nice nap, kid?” Cid’s gruff voice asked, as she held up a hand in front of the second yawn that practically chased the heels of the first.

 

That always seemed to be the way things worked, when she took the time for some sleep on safe ground; or at least on protected ground, in the case of this particular store.

 

“You made bacon.” Was the first thing she noticed, once the after-sleep bleariness had worn off.

 

“Don’t sound so shocked, kid,” Cid said, grinning widely back at her; or at least the boy he thought he was talking to. “I might not be the best in town, but Shera would have my ass if I couldn’t at least fix _something_ tasty.”

 

“Thanks,” she said. Then, since she didn’t want to be rude, and because it had been a long-ass time since her second-eldest brother had showed off his skills at playing FF7 to her, she asked. “Who’s Shera?”

 

Cid’s expression changed faster than she’d seen anyone’s do on anything that might have even been charitably called a normal occasion.

 

“Sorry, kid.” the blond’s expression had become almost painfully contrite. “Forgot you were new here.” Cid sighed deeply, clearly gathering himself for one reason or another. “Shera’s my wife; got married just before everything fell apart,” he laughed bitterly, eyes staring off into the middle-distance the same way she’d seen some of her dad’s old war buddies do at one time or another. “Figured we had everything going for us, what with ShinRa gone and all, and then it was all over. Just like that,” Cid snapped his fingers, and the action seemed to bring his mind back to the present. “Sorry,” he offered, with another, bitter smile. “I guess you didn’t come all the way out here to be bored by an old man’s war stories, eh kid?”

 

“No, it’s all right,” she said, wondering for a moment if Cid was the type of person to accept physical reassurance – a pat on the arm, or suchlike – from someone he’d never met, before simply serving herself some bacon and deciding to act when she knew the man himself on more than a casual basis.

 

Just as the two of them had started eating, though, the door to the shop swung open again. Looking over to see who it was that was paying them a visit, not saying anything because she had a wad of half-chewed bacon in “her” mouth, Sarah raised both eyebrows when she did.

 

“Cid, I got a report of a fallen star somewhere in this area,” the tall, black-clad, and _very_ familiar figure who was just stepping over the threshold into the shop, said. “Have you seen anyone new around here lately?”

 

“You’re lookin’ at him,” Cid said, gesturing to “her” with a gruff sort of amusement.

 

Squall’s gaze turned to take “her” in, and she cocked Sora’s head slightly as he finished his examination with a subtle nod. He made his way over to the table where the pair of them were sitting, putting his right hand on “her” left shoulder once he was close enough to comfortably reach across the gap. “Look, I don’t know if you fully understand what’s just happened, but I promise you that we’ll help you settle in as best we can.”

 

“Well, strictly speaking I don’t, but I figured that the ground I was standing on _disintegrating_ out from under my feet was generally not a good sign,” she said, offering Squall a wry sort of smile.

 

“You’re right, it wasn’t,” Squall said, studying “her” all the more closely for a few, long moments. “You seem pretty resilient,” he finished at last, clearly satisfied on some level by what he’d seen.

 

“Thanks,” she said, about to turn back to her meal when she recalled a brief conversation that she’d had before her nap.

 

“Don’t thank me,” Squall said, as she reached back into the pocket where she’d stored the photos that King Mickey had given her. “You’ll need it for what’s coming.”

 

“I guess you’d know better than I do,” she said, pulling the photos free from Sora’s pocket and setting them down face-up on the table. “Anyway, do either of you know these guys? A mouse guy gave me these pictures, and you two are the first people I’ve actually talked to since I’ve got here.”

 

Both Squall and Cid seemed surprised by that, but Squall was the one who spoke up.

 

“You’ve _met_ King Mickey?”

 

“He was a king?” she asked, figuring that was an obvious question for a newcomer to ask, under the circumstances.

 

Squall closed his eyes briefly. “I keep forgetting you’re new here.”

 

“Speaking of new, we haven’t even introduced ourselves,” Cid interjected, a look of mild consternation on his face. “Name’s Cid Highwind.”

 

Squall looked reluctant for a moment, and then resigned. “Squall Leonhart. Call me Leon.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “Any special reason?”

 

“Yeah, there is,” Squall said, but the tone of his voice and the expression on his face made it clear that any further discussion on the subject wouldn’t be happening.

 

At least not until they knew and trusted one another, and by then the issue could very well be moot.

 

“Fair enough,” she paused for a moment, and then decided fuck it; she didn’t know Sora’s last name, and with all she was going to have on her mind later, making one up would really be more trouble than it was worth. “I’m Sora Williams.”

 

Best thing about this place and these people was that she didn’t even have to threaten people about the “Labyrinth” jokes.

 

“All right,” Squall said, standing up straighter as he gave “her” a more direct once-over. “If King Mickey was so interested in you, personally, then I think it’s best that you come with me and meet some friends of mine. Let’s go.”

 

Just as Squall was starting to reach out for “her” left arm, Cid intercepted his right and held it fast.

 

“Siddown, Squall,” the blond grumbled good-naturedly. “We haven’t finished dinner yet.” Squall looked like he was going to protest for a long moment, and Cid must have seen it, too, because the next thing he did was to grin in a teasingly threatening manner. “Of course, if you _want_ to explain to Shera how you not only stopped takin’ good care of yourself, but also tried to keep a hungry kid from gettin’ his dinner, I’d be perfectly willin’ to call her here.”

 

Squall looked just stubborn enough to keep going through even after that, but then he relented and settled himself down at the table – which kind of reminded her of a taller, black version of her family’s living room coffee table – while Cid dished him up a plate of bacon with some assorted vegetables on the side. Sarah chuckled softly at the ensuing scene.

 

“What’s so funny, kid?” Cid asked, though his tone said that he suspected the answer.

 

“Sounds like Shera’s made quite a reputation for herself, that’s all,” she said, leaning “her” chin on “her” right fist.

 

“Go on,” Cid said, after swallowing another bite of bacon. “Sounds to me like you might have some interesting ideas, kid.”

 

“Well, it seems like she’s the kind who tries to be everybody’s mom,” she grinned, eating some more of the mixed vegetables before she continued speaking. “And, if there’s anyone you really don’t want to get on the wrong side of, it’s a mom; cause the best thing you can hope for if you do, is a lecture where they _don’t_ punch you in the face.”

 

Cid chuckled. “Nicely put, kid.” He polished off the rest of his mixed vegetables. “And you’re right; Shera’s been talking about starting up a family of our own, once all of this shit’s finally settled down.”

 

Just as she’d started to bite down on another strip of bacon – whatever Cid’s opinion of his own skills as a chef, he’d cooked the bacon just the way she liked it – Squall pulled “her” up and out of her chair, accompanied by Cid’s wince, and presumably sub-vocalized cursing.

 

“Let’s get going,” the brunet said sharply, though he tried to make himself sound unconcerned.

 

She turned back, taking the bacon strip out of “her” mouth so that she could call back her thanks to Cid for the meal that he had shared with them, and he grinned ruefully back at “her” as she and Squall left the shop together.


	19. Kuromaru

“So,” she said, once the two of them had passed out of the populated parts of the First District and were well on their way to the Second. “Lost love, unrequited, or none of my damn business?”

 

“It’s-” Squall was clearly about to go into a state of denial, before he’d looked down at “her” and she’d given him her best who-do-you-think-you’re-bullshitting look. “It’s one of those.”

 

“Fair enough,” she said, as the two of them continued on their way to the Second District, there to meet with – in all likelihood – Aerith, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy, and quite possibly all of them at once.

 

Still, something was starting to tweak her danger-sense, not surprising considering where they were and what they were dealing with, and so when a group of Shadows started emerging from the ground, Sarah was already mentally prepared to deal with them. Breathing deeply in and out – at least as best as she could manage during the developing battle – Sarah left her emotions behind at the starting point and flowed into battle. She kept some of her attention on Squall, mapping his movements so that she could not only stay out of the way of his strikes, but so that she could reinforce his defense; fully aware of the fact that she and Squall wouldn’t be able to stand alone forever.

 

So, when the Shadow assault began to taper off, she and Squall working systematically to clean up the last of the stragglers, Sarah remained in combat-mode for a few more moments – seeking for any other Shadows that might have been trying to ambush the two of them when it looked like their guard would be down – and then breathed slowly and deeply as she re-centered her awareness in Sora’s body. It was still a fuckall weird concept, that, but it was the situation she was in, and so Sarah was going to deal with it. The urgency in Squall’s voice when he shouted her current alias caused Sarah to snap-turn “her” head in his direction, and so she was just in time to see a solitary Shadow hurl itself toward her and… cower behind “her” legs. The Shadow’s bright yellow eyes were locked on Squall where he stood. And Squall, well Squall seemed to be as completely at a loss as she felt right at that moment.

 

“Okay,” she said, still feeling a bit off from being so soon out of combat-mode and then being forced to deal with something so completely out of left-field. “So, satisfy my curiosity: is _this_ normal?”

 

“No,” Squall said firmly, looking for a moment like even _he_ didn’t know how to deal with something like this. Then the expression on his face became one of resolve. “Sora, hold still.” Squall raised his Gunblade back up into a combat-ready position. “I’ll deal with this.”

 

Sarah tensed as both Squall and the Shadow began to dodge around “her” body; one in an effort to escape destruction, and the other in an effort to deal out the same to said escapee. Sure, Squall was a professional soldier – or at least a mercenary – but her dad’s lessons on firearm-safety, repeated as they so often had been, weren’t the kind of thing that could easily be ignored by someone _without_ severe brain-damage.

 

“All right, that’s enough!” she said, a bit more snappishly than she had first intended to; still, considering her present circumstances, Sarah could easily admit that she wasn’t at her best.

 

“That Heartless is still there, Sora.”

 

She knew he was trying to be reasonable, she really did, but under the circumstances- “Yes, I’m aware of that,” she bit out. “I just have a _tiny,_ little problem with you waving a _loaded firearm_ in my face for god-knows how long.” She tilted “her” head slightly, feeling the spiky tension of Sora’s muscles radiating up and down his neck. “Call me unreasonable, but I don’t particularly like the idea that I could live or die at the twitch of someone’s finger.”

 

Squall seemed to have to force himself to relax, but he managed to do it all the same. “Fair enough,” he paused, looking back down at the Shadow crouching at “her” feet. “What are you planning to do about that Heartless, then?”

 

She looked back down at the Shadow, who by now had wrapped itself around the back of “her” legs, and at this point looked so much like her second-oldest brother’s cat that Sarah almost had to smile. “Call me crazy, but at this point it seems pretty harmless.”

 

“You can’t be serious.”

 

She did smile at that point, if only for the sheer absurdity of the situation. “I so very rarely am, but this might just be one of those times,” she said. Then, turning a good amount of her attention to that Shadow – which was going to need a name, since it looked like the two of them were going to be seeing a fair bit more of each other in at least the near future – currently wrapping itself around the back of “her” legs. “All right, you; looks like we’re going to be sticking together for a bit, so you’d better behave yourself.”

 

When she turned her attention back to Squall, however, she found the business-end of his Gunblade pointed dead-center at “her” face.

 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She’d officially had enough for one night. “I do _not_!” a powerful blow from the Keyblade slammed into the back of Squall’s knees, knocking him off his feet. “Have _time_!” she slammed the Keyblade into the space between Squall’s wrist and inner-elbow, forcing him to drop his weapon. “For _bullshit_!” Her last blow from the Keyblade cracked Squall across the back of his head, knocking him unconscious to the ground.

 

Even as she was breathing deeply, wanting to regain her composure again, she saw the Shadow whose continued existence she had just helped to ensure rushing at the unconscious man she’d just put down for the count.

 

 _Shit; helpless prey._ “Kuromaru, _sit_!”

 

The Shadow dropped to all-fours, making it look even more like her second-oldest brother’s cat than it already had, and turned to peer at “her” with those blank, yellow eyes of its. Sighing, Sarah made her way over, setting “her” left hand on the little Heartless’ head, just between its twitching antennae, as she dismissed the Keyblade with “her” right. “You’re going to cause me no end of trouble, aren’tcha little guy?”

 

The Shadow, naturally, had no answer. But someone else seemed rather amused by the proceedings, judging by the laughter she was now hearing.

 

“Wow; I’ve gotta say, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone command a Heartless _not_ to attack someone,” Yuffie said, coming out from the shadow between two buildings. “I’ll admit, I didn’t know quite what to make of you at first, but you’ve got a good heart so you’re all right in my book.”

 

“Thanks,” she said, turning to look at the other girl while still keeping a hand atop the Shadow’s head. She was tempted to make a comment about Yuffie’s outfit, which looked as patently ridiculous as it had on her video game counterpart, but that would have been rude; Sarah made it a point not to be rude to people who didn’t deserve it. “You know this guy?”

 

Yuffie laughed. “Squall and me? We go _way_ back,” she reached down to muss up Sora’s hair. “And don’t worry; he’s got a hard head,” she winked, leaning over as if she was going to impart some great secret. “And there’s not much in there you can damage, anyway.”

 

If Yuffie was hoping to lighten the mood by saying that, it really only served to do the opposite. The fact that she’d slammed what pretty much amounted to a metal club into the back of a man’s head – something that had a better than average chance of violently concussing him – fully registered to her then.

 

Still, Yuffie was obviously trying to keep both of their spirits up; at the very least, that deserved some form of acknowledgement. “Thanks.” Then, with a more mischievous smile, she continued. “So, you know a place where we can stash this guy, or do we just steal his lunch money and leave him here?”

 

Yuffie laughed. “No, I know a good hotel around here.” She went over to the unconscious form of Squall laid out on the ground. “You think you could get his feet for me?”

 

“I could,” she said, making her way to the position opposite Yuffie so that she could suit actions to words.

 

“All right,” Yuffie said brightly, shifting her gaze briefly to take in something lower and on Sarah’s left; she herself looked down as the Shadow tugged at Sora’s pants. “Let’s head out, then.”

 

“Sounds good to me,” she said, falling into step with Yuffie as the two of them carried Squall’s unconscious form out of the small square where they’d been standing, pushed through a pair of very familiar doors, made their way carefully along the raised causeway that bordered the large courtyard that the Second District seemed to have been built around, and through another pair of doors whose large windows had a soft, buttery light shining through them. The first thing that caught her gaze, when she had finally made it into the hotel, was the blue-painted door with a sea motif that was the first thing anyone saw when they came in this way.

 

“Is anyone staying in that blue room?” she asked.

 

Sure, it’d been just one more piece of pre-rendered background scenery in-game, but even then she’d wondered just what it would have looked like if it _had_ actually been rendered as a room rather than just a differently colored part of the wall.

 

“Nope,” Yuffie said cheerfully. “That room’s pretty much open to anyone who wants to stay there.” That smile of hers became rather more amused. “I can see why you’d ask, though. It really does go with your theme.”

 

She grinned back. “Well, I do _try_ to coordinate my room with my outfit-of-the-day.”

 

The both of them had a pretty good laugh over that little statement, and Yuffie even offered to talk to the hotel’s manager for her, as the ninja pushed open the door to the third room down from the door they’d come in through – marked with the number 2 – and they carried Squall’s unconscious form over to the room’s large bed. All of the things in this room seemed to have a greenish tint to them, except for the ones made of wood, but before she could become too absorbed in studying her current surroundings, Yuffie pulled a softly-glowing green bottle from the top drawer of the little nightstand by the bed, popped the top, and poured it over Squall’s face.

 

The brunet woke quickly after that, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. Yuffie laughed in that way old friends did when one of them had something to teasingly hold over the other’s head. “Looks like someone finally got the best of you, Squall.”

 

“It’s Leon,” the man himself insisted off-handedly, most of his attention focused on her; or at least the boy he thought she was. “There aren’t many people I know who can decisively end a fight in just three blows,” Squall narrowed his eyes slightly as he continued to study “her” where she sat in one of the room’s only two chairs. “You’ve had training.”

 

“I have,” she said, tilting “her” head slightly as she herself studied the two people in front of her; it was at least less strange, seeing them in the flesh than it had been to see Riku the same way, since at least these two had normal hair-colors. “So, either of you care to fill me in about just what the heck is gone on around here?” she asked, wondering what they’d say in return.

 

Squall narrowed his eyes still further, but his gaze had shifted downward, to take in the Shadow that she could still feel clinging to the right leg of Sora’s pants. “To start with, that thing that seems to be so fond of you is called a Heartless. It’s one of the weaker ones, but I still don’t understand why it hasn’t attacked you yet.”

 

She smirked slightly. “Maybe it’s friendly.”

 

Squall’s narrowed eyes shifted back up to “her” face. “Heartless aren’t friendly. And this isn’t a laughing matter, Sora,” he said harshly. “If you spared this one, how can anyone be sure that you won’t spare any of the others that come your way?”

 

“Well, if they’re as honestly peaceful as this little guy, then I just might take that under consideration,” she said, patting the head of said little guy as it hopped into “her” lap and made itself comfortable. “But, if you’re actually trying to argue that one-small-step, slippery slope bullshit with me, then I will take off _both_ my shoes and throw them at your big, empty head.”

 

That last, ending was delivered in a pleasant tone, with a wide, cheerful smile that had never failed to unnerve whoever she used them on. To be fair, however, her threats were usually a great deal more visceral than simply beaning someone with a pair of shoes. Still, a person only got one first impression; there was no need to make a bad one.

 

Yuffie laughed. “Well, that’s the first time anyone’s threatened Squall here with _shoes_ , of all things,” she paused for a moment, grinning widely. “Still, if you’re going to be traveling around with that little Heartless, you’re going to need some way to tell it apart from all of the other Heartless who are going to be attacking you.” She paused again, looking more contemplative this time. “What was that name you called it, when you ordered it not to attack Squall?”

 

“Kuromaru,” she said, the curiosity about just what Yuffie intended to do about that particular issue making her answer sound more like a question.

 

“That’s the one,” Yuffie said enthusiastically, hopping up from the bed where she and Squall had been sitting down. “I’ll be right back. You two play nice while I’m gone, okay?” She left before either of them could say a word in response.

 

Sarah _did_ raise an eyebrow, but before she could actually say anything, she began feeling an uncomfortably familiar sensation in the lower half of “her” body. _Seriously, now of all times?_ She growled mentally.

 

“Look, Sora, we might have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Squall said, leaning forward slightly as he seemed to study “her” more deeply. “But, if it’s really making you that uncomfortable-”

 

“No, it’s nothing like that,” she said; she was tempted to laugh, though whether at the sheer awkwardness of the situation or amusement at Squall’s misjudgment of the same, even she couldn’t quite say. “It’s just,” she shifted slightly in her seat, tempted to bring up one of “her” calves to press against the afflicted area, but not knowing just the kind of effect it have had with regards to Sora’s different anatomy. “Do you know where the bathroom is? I think dinner’s catching up with me.”

 

For a moment, as Squall blinked – his face as blank as she had ever seen Sora’s in-game – Sarah was sorely tempted to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of his stunned-bunny look. Then the moment passed, and Squall got up off the bed, gently gripping “her” left shoulder in passing with a muttered “Come on.”

 

She thanked him, as the two of them made their way of the second room, past the red, patterned door that would have lead into the first, and down the hall to the plain brown door next to the check-in desk. She noticed that the sign that read “staff only” was missing from its place on the wall next to the door, though she didn’t have the time to check if it had been removed or if it simply hadn’t been there in the first place, before Squall pushed open the door and lead them into the small corridor behind it. Sarah breathed more easily once she saw the signs denoting the bathrooms, but as she made her way toward them, “her” hand up on the door to push it open, she noticed someone else’s hand on the handle, ready to hold it closed.

 

“Do you mind?” she asked, raising both of “her” eyebrows at Squall where he stood, next to the door she had been preparing to open.

 

“No.” There was a sort of amused cast to his face when he said that, though he didn’t smile; Sarah wondered for a moment if he ever did. “I just think you’d be a bit more comfortable going in _that_ door.”

 

Looking up at the sign above the door she’d been about to reflexively push open, Sarah was very tempted to laugh; really, under any other circumstances, her heading into the women’s bathroom wouldn’t be something that people felt the need to comment on. Not unless she was wearing certain types of costumes at a con, at least.

  
“Thanks.” Was all she said in the end.

 

“The bathrooms on your world must be set up differently,” Squall said, his tone suggesting that he wasn’t really expecting an answer.

 

She laughed softly, making her way over to the men’s room door. “Something like that.”

 

It was a nice enough bathroom, as far as bathrooms went; nicely painted in warm, neutral tones, and lit with a soft, buttery light that was nonetheless bright enough that one didn’t have to strain their eyes when they were under it. It also didn’t have that cloying, sick-sweet stick-in-your-nose smell that was a staple of a fair amount of the public bathrooms that she’d been in her time. So that was a nice bonus. She wasn’t particularly inclined to pause and try to suss out just what this place really _did_ smell like, since she had a lot more pressing matters to attend to, but it was nice to have found another bathroom that didn’t stink of overused air-fresheners.

 

Hurrying over to one of the stalls on the left-hand side of the room she now stood in, Sarah sat down on the toilet and the quickly arranged “herself” so that she wouldn’t end up getting anything on the floor. After all, she didn’t know how the muscle-contractions in that particular area of Sora’s body would affect things.

 

Once she was finished with _that_ particular business, Sarah wiped off – briefly wondering how Sora was handling things, or if he even _could_ handle things – and made her way over to the sink after a quick pause to flush the toilet. Vigorously washing “her” hands – perhaps a bit more so than was strictly necessary – after filling “her” palm with the liquid soap that all public bathrooms seemed to have, Sarah dried them thoroughly and then turned to leave. That was when she found that the little Shadow that had thrown itself at her for mercy and protection had followed her even in here.

 

“And I suppose _you_ need to use the bathroom too, eh little guy?” she deadpanned, amused at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

 

Reaching down to pat the little Shadow between its twitching antennae, Sarah snapped “her” fingers and gave a quick “C’mon, boy!” as she made her way out of the bathroom to meet up with Squall again.

 

The brunet’s eyes flickered between the two of them for a long moment, jaw working like he wanted to say something, but then he clearly reconsidered.

 

“Let’s get going,” was all he said in the end, though Sarah could still tell that he honestly disapproved of the whole situation with her and the Shadow. And yeah, she knew that – from any other perspective – what she was doing now would probably seem completely insane, and furthermore she knew that the only other person could truly see things from her perspective was her. Still, she’d never felt right about killing something helpless if it wasn’t also suffering, and so far as she’d seen the little Shadow who insisted on tagging along with her was rather placid, if not a bit clingy.

 

When the three of them had made it back to whoever’s room this was – she hadn’t given much thought to things like that when all of this was just one more game out of the many that she’d owned, but now she was starting to wonder – they found Yuffie sitting on the bed, casual as you please, tossing a box from one hand to the other.

 

“So, bathroom break, huh?” she asked cheerfully, continuing before either of them could say a word. “Well, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. We’ve still got some stuff to cover,” she paused for a moment, and then Sarah was forced to catch the box between both of “her” hands as Yuffie lobbed it gently at “her” head. “By the way, Sora, that’s for you,” the other girl said, with a rather amused smile.

 

Tilting “her” head slightly, remembering to thank Yuffie for the gift – unexpected as it was – Sarah opened the box. Inside was a red collar with a golden pendant about the size of a quarter dangling from the center. Looking back up at Yuffie with a raised eyebrow, inviting the other girl to explain all of this, she smirked slightly as the self-proclaimed ninja laughed.

 

“Well, we’re all going to need some way to tell your Heartless apart from all of the other Heartless around here,” Yuffie explained, still looking rather amused for some reason or other. “And, since you gave yours a name, I thought _that_ would be the best way,” she paused for a moment, her smile becoming softer and rather more thoughtful. “Besides, the man who does engravings hasn’t been getting much business lately, so he was happy to take the job.”

 

“The two of you are taking this too far,” Squall said flatly, as Sarah herself brought the collar’s pendant in closer to “her” face so that she could examine it in more detail.

 

“So, Kuromaru, huh?” she echoed, turning her gaze to regard the Shadow that was currently leaning most of its almost-negligible weight against “her” right leg. “What do you think? You like that name?” The Shadow – or Kuromaru, if they were really going to do this thing – climbed enthusiastically into “her” lap, stretching up to nuzzle its head against the center of “her” chest. She chuckled softly, reaching up to pat the toddler-sized Heartless between its merrily-twitching antennae. “All right, Kuromaru it is, then.”

 

She looked back up to see Squall palming his face, while Yuffie laughed amusedly at his antics.

 

“You know, I think Ansem would be really interested in what you’ve managed to do here,” the other girl said, after she’d gotten over her spate of facepalm-induced laughter, courtesy of Squall.

 

“Ansem?” she echoed, despite knowing full well just who that was; at least one of them, since she’d only read Wiki articles about the other.

 

“Yep,” Yuffie nodded. “He and his apprentices were studying the Heartless; I’m sure he’d love to find out how you managed to tame one enough to give it a name,” she was smiling in a rather interested fashion, herself; then her smile became wider and all the more amused as Squall sighed deeply while pinching the bridge of his nose. “Anyway, he compiled all of his current findings about the Heartless into a report,” Yuffie’s expression became rather more thoughtful, almost reflective. “But the pages were scattered in all this chaos. If you can find them, I’m sure they could provide you with some new insights about Kuromaru, there.”

 

“Yeah, and maybe they could help you understand how what you’re doing isn’t normal,” Squall said, the expression on his face clearly stating that he found their whole situation fairly insane.

 

She lowered “her” eyelids to half-mast, smirking at him all the while. “Normality is _highly_ overrated.” Looking back down at Kuromaru, she found that the Shadow had uncurled itself slightly, and was swiping at the space between her and Squall. “No, Kuromaru,” she deadpanned, patting the Shadow between its antennae. “You can _not_ claw his face off; that would be very rude.” Kuromaru turned its wide, lidless yellow eyes fully onto her, seeming rather imploring. “No,” she reiterated, more than a little amused by the proceedings. “Not even if you ask nicely.” She nudged the Shadow back into “her” lap with a hand between its antennae. “Behave yourself.”

 

She looked back up, just as Yuffie fell back onto it laughing, while Squall palmed his face and sighed deeply.

 

“You know, I knew that anyone who came here would have some problems, if only because no one comes here without having their world at least threatened by the Heartless, but I never once suspected that the chosen one would be completely _insane_.”

 

Sarah smirked all the wider. “Sanity is for the weak.”


	20. Leon’s roar

Yuffie fell back onto the bed laughing, after she’d just started sitting up, while Squall sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose.  
  
“All right,” Yuffie said, sitting back up at last. “Let’s stop teasing Squall, fun as it is.” The man himself gave her an annoyed look for that. “And get going. We were due to meet up with Aerith soon, anyway.”

 

“I’m sure she’s just going to _love_ you,” Squall deadpanned.

 

Before she could do more than chuckle at Squall’s little dig – a pretty good one for how stiff-necked he seemed to be – Kuromaru stood up suddenly, pulling and tugging at “her” left hand while pointing enthusiastically in that same direction. “What is it, boy?”

 

Her answer – all of theirs, come to think of it – came in the form of a child-sized ball of roiling Darkness that burst abruptly into being a few feet back from the room’s only table. Sarah jumped back to “her” feet at nearly the same instant as Squall and Yuffie both did, Keyblade called back to “her” hand, even as drew his Gunblade and swung it to limber himself up for what was coming.

 

“Yuffie, go out and warn the others,” he said firmly, even as Sarah limbered herself up for combat as best she could manage under the circumstances. “Sora, you’re with me. Let’s see if you still have the heart for this.”

 

“Kuromaru,” she said, turning to the Shadow who’d climbed up onto “her” back and was now peeking over “her” right shoulder. “ _Stay_.”

 

A powerful swipe and a shot from Squall’s Gunblade blew the Soldier Heartless out through the window, and she followed Squall in a vault through that window, across the balcony, and down to the ground without hesitation.

 

“Don’t worry about the small fry,” Squall advised, as Sarah took in their current battlefield with a sweeping glance; hardly ideal for enemies who wouldn’t be stunned when you slammed them into walls. “Follow me, and let’s deal with the leader!”

 

Sensible. “Roger that; on your six.”

 

Falling in behind the man as he started to move again, Sarah matched his speed, all the while adjusting herself so that she could remain a good few paces behind him so that the two of them wouldn’t trip each other up, or be at risk of injuring the other with the stroke of their respective swords. Squall, naturally, took the brunt of the assault from the Soldiers, but every once and again once of them would slip past him and Sarah would be forced to deal with the thing herself. They continued that way for some time, Squall opening any door in front of them with a shoulder-barge so that he could keep at least a fair amount of his momentum, and then cutting down the Soldiers and other types of Heartless who tried to swarm them on the other side, until at last they had reached a purple, checkered courtyard of about the right size and shape to serve as a gladiatorial arena.

 

While Sarah paused for a few moments in the absence of Heartless attacks – to catch her breath after the running-battle that she’d just participated in – she caught sight of something bright and colorful falling down toward the ground.

 

“Nice of you to drop in,” she said, as what she realized were two people – anthros, rather – disentangled themselves and stood up.

 

“Donald, Goofy,” Squall greeted, making his way over to where the three of them were standing. “Good, you’re here.”

 

“Hey, Leon!” Goofy greeted happily, once his laughter had trailed off; Sarah wondered briefly about that, but since it wasn’t really important, she decided not to pursue that line of thought.

 

“A Heartless!” Donald shouted, his staff aimed at the exact place where Kuromaru’s head peeked out from over “her” right shoulder.

 

“He _says_ that Heartless is friendly,” Squall interjected; his tone was still as skeptical as ever, but Sarah was grateful for his support all the same.

 

Before any kind of conversation could start up between the four of them, Kuromaru began pulling urgently at “her” right shoulder, and pointing to the left. That, naturally, was where the latest in a long line of Soldier Heartless emerged.

 

Calling the Keyblade back to hand – she’d wonder later about how she was able to use the Kingdom Key when she and Sora were such very different people – Sarah cut down a charging Soldier and moved quickly onto the next one. She could vaguely remember something that had happened here – something fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, but at least threatening enough to nag at her in the midst of everything that was happening – but it had been long enough since she had either played the game or watched the Hellfire Commentaries LP that she couldn’t quite recall what it was. Sure, she was going to find out just what that was sooner than later, but it would have been at least _nice_ to be able to mentally prepare herself for what was coming. _Seriously,_ she mused with mordant good-humor, wading into a group of Soldier Heartless and cutting them down amid bolts of elemental magic from Donald’s staff and shots from Squall’s Gunblade. _If I’d known this shit was going to go down, I would have done my research beforehand._

 

When the sky opened up and rained down a fully-articulated suit of dark-purple armor with a Heartless emblem in the center of the currias, Sarah swore softly under her breath; _this_ was one of those things that she would have wanted to have the time to mentally prepare for. Still, nothing for it but to keep moving forward now.

 

Leaving her remaining emotions behind where she started, Sarah waded back into the battle, fully understanding the fact that she wasn’t going to come out of this scrap without some scrapes of her own.

 

The armor’s clawed gauntlets whipped through the air, causing Sarah herself to bob, duck, and weave to get out of their range, and a brief, sharp pain in her left shoulder when she didn’t move fast enough; she quickly dismissed that. It wasn’t something that she could spare any attention for at the moment.

 

Beating unmercifully on the greave nearest to her, once she had managed to make it past the rather formidable defenses presented by the gauntlets, Sarah dove out of the way of a mule-kick from the other greave just as the one she’d been pounding away at was destroyed by another shot from Squall’s Gunblade. Throwing herself into a combat-roll out of the range of the armor, Sarah paused for only a moment to catch her breath, before throwing herself back into combat with renewed vigor.

 

With their combined efforts, each able to patch holes in an ally’s defense or to cover for them when they needed to catch their own breath after striking a particularly powerful blow, they were eventually able to whittle the Heartless before them down  to merely its currias and helm. Squall was the one who ultimately killed it; walking into the thing with a steady barrage of shots from his Gunblade.

 

“I really need to look at getting one of those,” she said, as the adrenaline-rush of combat began to ebb, leaving her free to notice the feel of some kind of liquid being poured over “her” back.

 

“Sorry, none of the shops here sell them,” Squall said, as he made his way over to where she’d sat down to rest from the battle, once it’d become clear that Squall had things well in hand. There was a look of respect on his face, when he reached down to help Sora back to “her” feet. “I think I might be able to find the parts to make you one, if you really want me to.”

 

“You sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble?” she asked, wanting to be polite even though the idea of having her own Gunblade was pretty much made of win and fuck yeah.

 

“With Cid’s help to get some of the specialized parts I need?” the smile on Squall’s face was a small one, sure, but it was more than she’d seen from him in-game. “I’m sure I’ll be able to make you something you can handle.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Hey!” Donald called, drawing the attention of her and Squall both, as had probably been his intention from the start. “Your name is Sora, right?”

 

“Yeah, that’s me,” Sarah said, after briefly being tempted to make a sarcastic comment or two.

 

“The King wanted us to find the one who held the Key,” the vaguely anthropomorphic duck continued, looking rather pleased with himself. “So, why don’t you come with us?”

 

“Yeah!” Goofy interjected, with what seemed to be his usual amount of enthusiasm. “We can go to all kinds of other worlds on our vessel.”

 

“That’s good to hear; I was separated from my two companions when I ended up here,” she said, despite the fact that she already knew pretty much the general areas where those two had ended up. “They weren’t here to meet me when I woke up, so I figure they must be out there, somewhere,” she said, sweeping “her” right arm to take in the whole of the sky. “If you guys need my help with anything, that’s fine with me, so long as I also get the time to look for my companions, as well.”

 

“Well, a’course you will!” Goofy enthused, while Donald looked as grudgingly reluctant as he ever did; Sarah added one more item to her mental list of reasons she would enjoy punching Donald in the face. “Fair’s fair, after all.”

 

Or at least hitting him with a blunt object, since his beak would serve to deflect punches that weren’t intended to _really_ hurt him.

 

“There’s also the fact that the King himself urged you to go with them when you met up with him,” Squall said, looking briefly curious before settling back into stoicism again.

 

“Yeah, there’s that, too.”

 

She would have been the first to say that such a thing hadn’t seemed particularly pertinent to their current situation, being more of an interesting aside than any kind of topic for further discussion, but since she hadn’t brought it up she wasn’t going to make a fuss about it.

 

“What?!” Donald exclaimed, his gaze snapping back toward “her” so fast that Sarah would have been surprised if he hadn’t hurt his neck.

 

She bit back a smirk, if only for the generally amusing nature of this whole situation. “Yeah; I gave him a ham sandwich and some milk, and he told me to stick with you guys if we ever met up,” she took out the photos that King Mickey had given her. “I didn’t bring it up because it seemed kind of redundant, what with you guys already inviting me along and all.”

 

“Golly, it was real generous of you, offerin’ the King your food like that,” Goofy said, the cheerful grin that never seemed to be far from his face returning in full force.

 

“I had more,” she said, not wanting them to get the wrong impression any more than she needed them to. “You see, my companions and I were going to be heading off on a rafting trip, and I was pretty much in charge of provisions. So, when… everything happened, I still had my supplies.”

 

“That makes sense,” Squall said, speaking up again after looking contemplative for a long few minutes.

 

“Speakin’ of supplies, let’s all go get dinner,” Goofy said cheerfully, putting his hands on Donald’s left shoulder and “her” right. “I don’t know about you guys, but all that fightin’ gave me an appetite!”

 

“Sure, sounds good to me,” she said.

 

It was becoming all the more clear to her just how _real_ this place and all of its people had become; it was an interesting contrast, the more she saw of it.

 

“Yeah,” Squall said, though he sounded about as enthusiastic about the idea as he did about everything else.


	21. Many Meetings

The five of them made their way back to the stairs that bordered the edge of the Third District, and Sarah found herself wondering just how many districts there actually were in Traverse Town. When she’d had the time to look, she hadn’t seen the huge door that would have lead them back to the First District, but the reason that it had existed in the first place had probably been for game mechanics reasons. After all, none of the worlds that one visited in any of the KH-games she’d actually played had been particularly big, either.

 

As their group continued on their way through Second District, Sarah noticed that all of them – Squall in particular, naturally – were still on fairly high alert. That fit, since Heartless _had_ been known to spawn in both the Third and Second Districts fairly regularly. It made them a fairly good place for level-grinding in the early parts of the game; but she kind of doubted that such would be the case here and now. Hell, she didn’t even know if it was possible _to_ level-grind, now that the place she stood in was flesh-and-blood _real_ instead of ruled by game mechanics.

 

They passed through the Second District without a challenge, though she could feel Kuromaru shifting around on “her” back and reached over to scruff its antennae a bit, which seemed to calm it down. Really, the Shadow seemed to be acting like a combination of her dog and her younger older brother’s cat.

 

It was kind of funny when she stopped to think about it; not really the kind of funny to make anyone but the most easily-amused dissolve into laughter, but it brought a wry sort of smile to “her” face all the same.

 

When the five of them stopped just in front of the entrance/exit to the First District, Sarah’s attention was drawn to the argument – subdued as it seemed to be – that was being held between Squall and Yuffie.

 

“Is there a problem?” she asked, drawing the attention of the pair of them when she noticed that the argument they were having – which had actually seemed more like wa particularly pointed discussion before that – was starting to escalate in a rather unpleasant fashion.

 

“Well-”

 

“Yeah, actually there is,” Squall interjected, cutting Yuffie off before she could say more than the one word. “The Heartless have never been able to get more than a handful of their forces into the First District. If you go walking in there with that Shadow hanging off your back, Chosen of the Keyblade or not, you’re probably going to cause at least some unrest, if not an outright panic.”

 

“Good point,” she said, folding “her” arms and tilting “her” head slightly; even if people didn’t react all that dramatically to her and Kuromaru walking merrily around in the District, there was still the chance that it would set a dangerous precedent. “I don’t want anyone else trying to befriend one of these guys when even _I_ don’t know how I did it,” she muttered, reaching back to hold Kuromaru’s right hand in Sora’s own.

 

“That’s a good point, too,” Squall said, sounding surprised but approving at the same time.

 

She smiled briefly at the man, acknowledging the compliment that he had just paid her, before she tugged Kuromaru down from “her” back. Facing the Shadow squarely, even as Kuromaru tilted its head in what seemed to be an expression of both curiosity and confusion; she wondered again just how much of what she was seeing from Kuromaru was mimicry and how much of it was the lingering intelligence of whoever this particular Heartless Shadow had been before.

 

“Stay, Kuromaru,” she said, “her” right hand pressing lightly down atop the Shadow’s head until it had fully settled itself down into a crouching position outside the swing of the doors leading into the First District. “I want you to wait for me here, all right?” she prompted, using the same soft-but-firm tone she used to command her dog; she was starting to miss Sub-Zero, honestly, but for the moment Kuromaru’s company would have to suffice. “You can come and meet up with me when we leave the District,” she said, pressing down on Kuromaru’s head again, after the Shadow had tried to hop up and follow her when she’d turned to head for the First District to get some food. “ _Stay_ , Kuromaru,” she paused for a long moment, turning to look back at Kuromaru as the Shadow tilted its head again. “Good boy,” she said, in spite of the fact that she didn’t know if the Shadow actually understood her words or her tone.

 

Hearing a sigh from just up ahead, Sarah turned to see Squall palming his face again, just as Yuffie burst quietly into laughter.

 

“Heartless aren’t pets, Sora,” Squall said, once he noticed the fact that he was being watched.

 

She raised an eyebrow. “When did I ever say they were?”

 

Yuffie laughed louder, that time. “He’s got you there, Squall.”

 

“It’s Leon,” Squall said pointedly, not looking particularly happy about having to repeat himself. “And that’s not the point. You’re the Chosen of the Keyblade.” Sarah could almost _hear_ the capital letters in that title. “Seeing you so chummy with that Heartless – how do any of us know you’ll be up to handling the others when the time comes?”

 

“Aw, shucks, Leon; you’re worryin’ too much!” Goofy interjected, clapping his hands on “her” left shoulder and Squall’s right. “I’m sure Sora knows what he’s doin’. Besides,” Goofy laughed in that way she’d heard from him so many times, both in-game and in the Disney cartoons she’d sometimes watched. “Kuromaru there’s a friendly Heartless.”

 

Said Heartless tilted its head slightly, as Goofy waved enthusiastically at it, and Sarah chuckled softly.

 

“Friendly Heartless,” Donald echoed, sounding like he was still dubious about the whole thing, but willing to be convinced under the right circumstances. “You’re right, I think it seems really strange,” Donald paused, looking back at Kuromaru where the Shadow crouched by the side of a building that had seemed to be selling shoes at one point during its existence; Sarah rather doubted that it was turning that much of a profit now. “But, Kuromaru really doesn’t seem to mean anyone any harm.”

 

Squall sighed briefly, then seemed to force his composure back into place. “All right, but just remember that you’re dealing with a Heartless. And Sora-”

 

“I know,” she said, before Squall could say anything else. “As long as he’s under my protection, Kuromaru’s actions are my responsibility.”

 

“I’m glad you understand, Sora,” Squall said, looking rather less displeased than he had previously.

 

He pushed open the doors to the First District – which looked newer than the rest of the construction in the area, which really made perfect sense when one thought of Traverse Town less in terms of a town and more as an armed refugee camp – and the five of them made their way back down into the main plaza of the First District.

 

Breaking off from the group, Sarah took the shortcut she had always used in-game, then made her way to the base of the stairs to wait for the rest of them.

 

“So, what kept you guys?” she asked, an innocent smile on “her” face that she suspected that not one of them bought for a second.

 

“Very funny,” Squall deadpanned, while Goofy and Yuffie both laughed, and Donald folded his arms and tapped his right foot with enough stern disapproval to set the two of them into another fit of laughter.

 

“All right, that’s enough you two,” Squall said, in a tone that suggested he was used to this kind of thing. “If we want to get a good meal before we sleep, we don’t want to spend all our time fooling around out here.”

 

There was a general consensus that they wanted to eat – one which she enthusiastically joined – and so the five of them made their way in the direction of the equipment shop that the three ducklings whose names she couldn’t quite recall at the moment worked. Passing the place by, though she did turn to look in the direction of the glass-and-wood doors to said shop, the five of them made their way under the awning of the shop. The candles at all of the outdoor tables made rather a nice touch, and were also one of the things that she could remember from the game.

 

“Those candles were made by the Moogles,” she heard Yuffie say, and so turned her attention to the self-proclaimed Ninja. “They were specially crafted, so only magic can put them out.”

 

She smiled back at the pleased expression on Yuffie’s face. “Really? And here I was just thinking about how nice they looked on the tables,” she adopted a confused expression. “What the heck’s a Moogle, anyway?”

 

“You’ll see,” Yuffie said, now looking rather mischievous.

 

Sarah would have really loved to know just what kind of fucked-up evolutionary path could produce Moogles. Or, in the more likely event that they were an entirely magically created species, she could really only think of two kinds of people who could have been ultimately responsible: someone who really liked cute things, or else someone who wanted to please a younger member of their family.

 

“Are we going to be eating inside or outside?” she asked, while at the same time wondering just how crowded the interior of the restaurant was ultimately going to end up being.

 

“Inside,” Squall said curtly, as he made his way to the door and opened it so that the five of them could make their way inside.

 

The restaurant itself actually had a comfortable amount of people inside, most of them talking at a low enough volume that the typical “wall of sound” that one tended to encounter when one entered a bustling restaurant from the street was rather muted. Of course, since nearly the only type of people who came to Traverse Town were the refugees of dead worlds, and that kind of thing was bound to dry up conversation, even if only through the unspoken implications of such an event hanging over every word spoken.

 

The five of them seated themselves at a table next to the shuttered front windows, thus answering Sarah’s unspoken query about whether they would need to wait for anyone.

 

“There’s a table of Moogles right over there, Sora.”

 

Looking at the place where Yuffie was pointing, Sarah found herself wondering – though not for the first time – just how in the hell a real Moogle would look. Their respective tables were a bit too far apart for her to make out anything that wasn’t already obvious to anyone who’d played a game with Moogles in it, but it was a nice gesture on Yuffie’s part to point them out, all the same.

 

“Moogles are living plush toys?”

 

The remaining four occupants of the table laughed, but before anyone could say anything else, Sarah heard light, clattering footfalls approaching the table. Waiting for everyone else to order their own food, still settling for those last few moments on her own choice, Sarah turned at last to face the waiter. And was then forced to swallow a burst of sheepishly-amused laughter, because their waiter was a pig.

 

“You know, I was just about to order some honey-glazed ham, but that would have been terribly insensitive of me.”

 

“Nonsense,” the waiter-pig – she wondered for a moment if there was a particular word for that – said, the expression on his face rather cordial as he reached out to ruffle Sora’s hair. “Honey-glazed ham is delicious! I’ll get you a full order,” the pig said cheerfully, as he finished writing down that part of her order. “Is there anything else I can get for you?”

 

Putting aside her surprise at what she’d just heard – she could examine it in more detail later – Sarah considered the question that had just been posed to her. “Do you guys serve those oil-fried potato strips? The ones that you cook by submerging them in the oil?”

 

She really couldn’t think of a more concise way to describe French Fries that didn’t also risk being inaccurate, and she couldn’t just go saying the name and expecting to be understood, since she rather doubted that there was a France – or even a Belgium – anywhere close by. Still, there _was_ a London analogue in-game, so that did raise the possibility of there being a Paris, though admittedly not by much.

 

Sarah was sorely tempted to laugh for a few, long moments; really, if she’d known what she was going to be getting herself into, she would have watched more Disney movies; even in spite of the fact that very few of them interested her on most levels/ still, even the most jaded anti-Disneyite would, if they were forced to be honest, have to admit that Disney’s animation was beautiful.

 

For the most part, at least; like every company, Disney had had its fair share of cheaper productions. Still, even in this place of all places, one did need special circumstances to make wishes come true; best to focus on the present, and let the future come when it would.

 

“All right,” their waiter – Sarah wondered briefly at what kind of nails he had, considering that he walked on cloven hooves just like any Terran pig that she had seen – said, writing down the second part of her order. “Is there anything special you want to drink, or would water be all right?”

 

Sara smiled, but hers was a gentle sort of amusement, as it had been for most of her stay here in this place of all places. “No; thanks, but I’ve had quite enough water to last the night.” And more of that in her supply-pack besides, she mused briefly. “What I’d really like is a root beer float. Do you guys have anything like that?”

 

“Well…” their waiter trailed off, tapping the small notebook he carried against his chin. “We _do_ have root beer, and I think I could get one of the Moogles to make it float, but-”

 

Sarah gave into the urge for a brief, gentle chuckle. “ _Do_ please let me rephrase that,” she said, smiling as she did so. “Could you get me a large glass, about so tall,” she held “her” hand about six inches from the table’s surface. “A bottle of root beer, a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, preferably and a straw that will reach the bottom of the glass without falling in.”

 

Their waiter finished writing in his little notebook, and started reading back over what he’d written in what Sarah presumed was an effort to ensure that he’d gotten everything down; it was what _she_ would have done, anyway. “All right. I’m fairly sure I can manage all of that, but I still don’t know why you’d want all of those things.”

 

She smiled gently, though a little mischievously as well. “You’ll find out quick enough, if you stay to watch.”

 

He laughed cheerily, though somehow without snorting the way she’d almost been expecting. “I suppose you’re right.”

 

As he turned to leave their table, presumably heading for the kitchen if everything she’d learned about waiters back home held true here, Sarah found herself wondering if he was a statistical outlier, or if that all-pigs-snort-while-laughing was just one more stereotype that had been blown out of proportion.

 

“What’re you thinking about now, Sora?” she heard Squall ask, and turned to see a rather curious expression on his face.

 

“First time I’ve ever met a cannibal pig,” she said, both since it would take too long to explain all of the background behind the laughing thing, and because that had been more of a moment’s idle curiosity in any case.

 

“What?” was pretty much the collective reaction of the table to that little revelation on her part.

 

She resisted the urge to raise a finger, since she was less giving a lecture and more explaining her position. “Well, think of how you guys would feel, if you came across a person who admitted to eating other people,” this she directed at Squall and Yuffie, since she was starting to get the feeling that – whatever taboos those two had – the practice of eating others of their own kind wasn’t nearly as unacceptable as it would have been in human society.

 

Personally, she thought the whole issue – and all of the implications thereof – was completely fascinating. But apparently others weren’t nearly so sanguine.

 

“I never thought about that,” Yuffie said, looking off in the direction that the waiter had gone, a rather unsettled expression on her face.

 

Squall, as seemed to be his wont, said nothing; but the thoughtful frown he turned on the path that their waiter had previously taken, combined with the way he slid his plate slightly back from his folded arms, let anyone who was paying attention know what he was feeling about this particular violation of a usually-unspoken human taboo.

 

“Aw, come on, guys,” Goofy said, cheerful as he always was. “It can’t be as bad as all that.”

 

“Technically, it can,” she said, after it had become clear that no one else was going to say another word on the matter. “You see, we humans have a taboo about those kinds of things; and cannibalism, the eating of one’s own kind, is one of the most widely-known. And hence, the most widely enforced,” she paused for a breath, then pressed on. “Some people even have legends, either about what happens to cannibals, or else what makes them cannibals in the first place: the Wendigo.”

 

“What’s a Wendigo?” Donald asked, his own plate ignored as he looked to “her” in fearful curiosity.

 

“The description can vary, depending on who you ask, but the general consensus seems to be that a Wendigo is half-again the height of a tall man, covered in thick hair, and has a mouthful of jagged teeth that either constantly drip blood, or are always stained with the blood of its last kill. And that that blood always seems to stay fresh between kills.” Another pause for breath, while the attention of everyone at her table remained fixed on her. “It’s said that the Wendigo hunts lonely travelers; anyone who becomes separated from their companions in the high, snowy mountains where it lurks will be stalked and eaten,” she paused again, briefly considering and then dismissing the thought of telling them the other part of the Wendigo’s legend. It was pretty much a moot point, thought; since such complete isolation as one might find in the mountains would be all but impossible to find in this kind of a society. “The legend also states that anyone who eats the flesh of one of their own kind – a cannibal – is one of those who have the greatest chance of being transformed into a Wendigo themselves,” she finished, bringing them all back to the point of the legend – and her recitation – in the first place.

 

And not a moment too soon, as it turned out; their waiter came back to their table. But it was the figure on his right, walking just slightly ahead of him, that really drew Sarah’s curiosity. She knew who he was, of course – one did not spend as much time as she did on TV Tropes and the KH Wiki as she did without learning a few things about the characters that one was going to be dealing with – but she couldn’t help but wonder just what in all the worlds Scrooge MacDuck would want with the people at their particular table. However, the fact that their waiter was carrying duplicates of each of the items that she’d requested while making her drink order went a long way towards explaining his presence right there and then.

 

“So, you want me to make you a root beer float, too?” she asked, fairly sure of her conclusions but wanting clarification all the same.

 

“Indeed; I don’t think anyone has thought of putting ice cream in soda before, so it’s a novel concept, at least.”

 

“That’s interesting,” she mused off-handedly, even as she set about making the pair of root beer floats that had been requested of her.

 

“Well, now I can see why you call that a root beer _float_ ,” Scrooge said, his amused chuckles bringing a smile to “her” face as well. “Look at all those bubbles!”

 

“Cheers,” she offered, raising her own glass after she’d put the straw she was going to use inside.

 

“Of course,” Scrooge said, grinning as he raised his own glass to tap against hers. “Cheers!”

 

Smiling as she savored the familiar taste of her own float, Sarah found the plate of neatly-sliced honey glazed ham being set down in front of her. Thanking the waiter, though she still found the idea of a pig serving a ham dish odd and amusing by turns, Sarah picked up the fork that had already been set out on the table, and then felt a hand settle on “her” left shoulder.

 

“That was a very tasty treat,” Scrooge said, smiling widely at “her” once she’d turned to look his way. “Thank you for sharing it with me. Would you mind staying after you finish dinner, young man?”

 

“I guess, if it’s okay with the rest of you guys?” she asked; after all, they all had a fair amount to do, and a lot riding on their actions now and in the future.

 

None of them could really afford unnecessary distractions at this juncture, but none of the group gathered here raised any objections – not even those who would be ber future traveling companions – and so Sarah allowed herself to acquiesce to Scrooge’s request. Enjoying her meal as thoroughly as she was able to with her curiosity a constant presence at the back of her mind, Sarah bid a brief farewell to her companions when their meal had come to an end.

 

“We’ll meet you back at the hotel, Sora,” Squall said, with that same certainty that he had always seemed to display.

 

“I’ll be there,” she said, raising “her” right hand to wave to the group as they left. “All right, Mr. Duck,” she continued, having just realized that no one here would be expecting her to know Scrooge MacDuck, but it was plain to anyone with working eyes just what he was. “I’m still here, so what did you want with me?”

 

“I’d like to offer you a business proposition, my young Sora,” the top hatted duck said, his tone just as enthusiastic as the smile on his face.

 

“I’m listening,” she allowed.

 

“I’d like to start selling them in my restaurants, but since you were the first one to make such a thing, I knew it was only right that I ask your permission before I went any further with my plans. Naturally, as the originator of the idea, you would be entitled to fully half of the profits,” he said, and his attitude became subtly more businesslike, while remaining as cheerful as it had ever been.

 

“That’s a very generous offer.” Particularly since she hadn’t seen any evidence that Heartless were the walking piñatas full of health and Munny that they had been in pretty much every Kingdom Hearts game that she’d played. “I accept. Is there anything I need to sign?”

 

“I can draw up a contract later, after we’ve both gotten some rest for the night,” Scrooge said, as the two of them shook hands. “For now, Sora, have a very good night.”

 

“Yeah, you too,” she said, rising from her seat after straightening her place at the table.

 

Briefly, subtly stretching as she stood up once more, Sarah looked down at the Munny on the table. It seemed to have been agreed upon, all unspoken in that way close friends sometimes do, that everyone would pay for their own meal. So, counting up each individual pile of coins placed on the table – as it appeared that each of their meals, diverse though they had been, had cost the same in the end – Sarah extracted fifty coins from the pouch that King Mickey had given her and set them atop the table with the others.


	22. Shadow Summoner

Bidding Scrooge good night once more, Sarah left the restaurant – she wondered briefly if it had an actual name, or if she was just going to end up calling it Scrooge’s Place for lack of anything better – and made her way back into the First District at large. Retracing her path back to the stairs, Sarah found her gaze drawn to the huge double-doors that lead to the Third District. Or rather, to where they would have been if they’d existed in the first place.

 

There was nothing in that particular area of the town but more buildings, and beyond that a glimpse of what might have been a perimeter wall.

 

Making her way up the stairs and across the landing, Sarah pushed open the large doors that lead to the Second District – a feat that was only marginally harder than it had looked in-game – and turned to look at the Shadow still crouching just outside the swing of said doors.

 

Snapping “her” fingers – the same signal that she’d eventually taught Sub-Zero to respond to – she smiled as the Shadow came loping easily over.

 

“Have you been a good boy, Kuromaru?” she asked, as the Shadow paced her on their way back to the hotel.

 

Yawning as she continued on her way, Sarah had soon made it back to the hotel where she and the others who would end up being her traveling companions on her quest to save this part of the multiverse were staying. Pushing her way past the glass and wood doors on the side nearest to where she’d entered from, Sarah quickly crossed to the blue-painted door of the room she’d chosen for her place of residence. She found that the room itself wasn’t nearly as unoccupied as it had been when she’d left.

 

“Is there something I can help you with?” she asked, her gaze sweeping over Squall and Aerith where they both sat at the small, round table that seemed to be just as much of a fixture of this room as the other table had been in the green room.

 

“We’re going to see Merlin tomorrow,” Squall said, brusquely rising from his seat and almost stomping for the door.

 

She scoffed. “Bit rude, that one.”

 

“I don’t think he meant it that way,” Aerith said, and when Sarah turned her attention back to the other girl, she found that Aerith had the cooler-pack she’d given to Cid back when she’d first gotten her feet under her on this refugee planet.

 

“Did Cid drop that off with you?”

 

“He did,” Aerith said with a nod. “He wanted me to tell you that he asked the Moogles to craft some special chill-packs for your food, and some special bottles for the milk you brought along. They’ve been enchanted with Ice magic, so they’ll be able to function indefinitely as long as they have a steady supply of Mana. Which won’t really be a problem on any of the worlds you’re going to be traveling to.” She stifled a yawn as Aerith paused, but the other girl had clearly noticed the action. “But we can talk more about that later. You and I should both get some sleep now.”

 

“That’s probably best,” she agreed, stifling another yawn.

 

Bidding Aerith good night as the other girl left, Sarah turned away from the door as it closed and made for the large bed, all the while stripping off Sora’s clothes as she walked. Considering the day she’d previously had, the things weren’t exactly fit for another day’s wear under any but the most desperate of circumstances, and even then she wouldn’t have been entirely happy to do so. So, after wadding up said travel-stained clothes so that she could carry them easier, Sarah cast about for something she could use as a hamper.

 

There turned out to be a fairly large basket just opposite the swing of her room’s door, something she hadn’t had the time to check for when she’d first claimed the room in question, so after a quick check to make sure that it was what it purported to be, Sarah dropped the clothes she was carrying into the basket and turned to make her way back to the bed. Movement out of the corner of “her” right eye caught Sarah’s attention then, and she turned to see Kuromaru making its own way over to her.

 

Patting the little Shadow’s head as she yawned again, Sarah stretched a last time and climbed into the bed.

 

Closing “her” eyes, Sarah chuckled softly; this had been one hell of a first day.

 

_~KH1~_

 

When she woke up the next morning, yawning and stretching and curling her toes just for the sake of it the way she always did when she first woke up, Sarah found that Kuromaru had climbed into her bed sometime during the night, its head having come to rest on the center of “her” chest.

 

“Well, good morning to you too, boy,” she chuckled, scruffing the Shadow’s antennae for a few moments even as she levered Sora’s body up and out of bed. Pausing by her supply-pack, she pick out a new pair of underwear and set the pack itself up on the bed.

 

Deciding against updating her journal before she’d taken her morning shower, Sarah turned toward the door perpendicular to the one at the back of the room, the one that would have lead her to this room’s balcony. The door she’d never had the chance to look for when she’d been playing the game that this world was based on. Sure enough, there was a shower unit in the room; no toilet, but that could very well have been an influence from this world’s JRPG roots.

 

She didn’t particularly care right at the moment, Sarah had to confess.

 

The thing that really mattered to her was the fact that there was a shower unit in front of her right now, and Sarah fully intended to put it to use. Turning back to the main room, she made for the duffel to pick up the soap and shampoo she’d packed for just this sort of occasion. Pushing the door out of the way as she made her way back into the shower room, Sarah didn’t even bother trying to suppress the wide, cheerful smile on her face.

 

It wasn’t like anyone was watching her at the moment, and pretty much anyone who wasn’t an unrepentant slob would be happy to find that their hotel room had a shower unit.

 

While she turned the hot water on all the way so that it could reach the proper temperature before she climbed in, Sarah checked the location of the shelves within the shower itself. There was the usual shaped-from-the-wall one used for holding bars of soap, with the usual handle for assisting in getting into and out of the shower itself, but the drain-grooves on that shelf were a fair bit more pronounced than she’d seen before, and there were actual holes in the bottom of the dish; likely to let any water inside drain all the faster. Those seemed like far better design choices she’d seen, though she had always and would always prefer liquid soap for myriad reasons, first and foremost being that it didn’t melt away during the course of one’s shower.

 

Still, this was what she had at the moment, so this was what Sarah was going to content herself with.

 

The shelf that was intended to hold those things that _weren’t_ soap turned out to ne more of a grate when Sarah took the time to study it more closely, which she figured was as good a design choice as any when one was attempting to make arrangements for in-shower storage as opposed to any other kind. Setting down her cargo in the appropriate places, Sarah caught a spray of water across “her” right shoulder and smiled when she noted that it was at just the right temperature for her.

 

Shedding the last of Sora’s clothes with a sigh of profound relief, after having paused briefly so that she wouldn’t fall over, while tossing Sora’s previously-worn underwear with a mental note to grab them later.

 

“Some times in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow…” she sang to herself as she began to lather up.

 

Sure, this was one of the most awkward things imaginable, and yes even the mental separation she’d built between her self and Sora’s body broke down a bit while she was doing things like this, but as long as she was borrowing the kid’s body like this she really did owe it to him to make sure that his body was kept in good condition. Hell, she’d want the same done for her, at least after the person on the other end finished with the seemingly-obligatory freaking out.

 

Just as she’d turned off the water and begun to wring out Sora’s freshly-washed mop of hair, she heard two firm, sharp knocks at the door.

 

“Not the best time,” she called out, nudging open the door with “her” left elbow in lieu of one of “her” currently-occupied hands.

 

“I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about our meeting with Merlin this morning,” Squall said, and Sarah got the impression that he was folding his arms again.

 

He’d done that a lot in-game, at least.

 

“I haven’t,” she said, trying to be reassuring but not really knowing how she was coming off to Squall. “Scrooge asked me to meet with him this morning, though, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to take care of that first. Just since it’s likely to be quicker.”

 

“That sounds reasonable,” Squall said, sounding a bit reluctant but not like he was going to try and stop her or anything.

 

“I’ll try to keep things as short as I can.”

 

“It’s nice to hear you say that.” The momentary pause seemed considerate; like Squall was turning things over in his mind. “But don’t rush anything you don’t need to, all right?”

 

“I won’t,” she said, smiling for the man’s consideration. “Thanks, though.”

 

“You’re welcome,” Squall said, after a few long, silent moments.

 

He might have been surprised to be thanked for his consideration, but Sarah only spared a thought for that. She’d been raised to show common courtesy, after all.

 

“I’ll meet you again when you’re finished talking with Scrooge, Sora,” Squall said.

 

“We’ll both be right here waitin’ for you, Sora,” Goofy called, sounding just as cheerful as he ever did.

 

“That’s nice to hear, you two,” she said, smirking as she finished wringing out Sora’s hair. “But, I’m going to be getting out of the shower soon, so unless the two of you want an eyeful – and _please_ tell me you don’t – I’m going to be needing some privacy.”

 

Goofy laughed. “You’re so funny, Sora.”

 

“We’re going to be having breakfast with the others,” Squall said, after only a brief pause. “I’d offer to save you some, but I guess Scrooge is planning to take care of that when the two of you meet up to talk about whatever it is that he wanted to speak to you about when he asked you to stay behind last light.”

 

“That’s good to know,” she said, stepping out of the shower unit at last.

 

“Remember what I said about that Shadow, too,” Squall said, his tone gruff and serious once again.

 

“I’m not likely to forget, what with everything that happened and all.”

 

For a few seconds she almost expected Squall to say something else, but all she heard from him was a deep sigh, and then later the sound of a far-off door closing.

 

Turning her attention back to Sora’s hair, she scrubbed it dry with the towel she’d taken off the rack, and then tossed the thing into a basket that she’d seen by the door. It was nice, she reflected, not having to throw down a towel to sop up the excess water that clung to one’s skin unless one spent an inordinate amount of time in the shower waiting to drip-dry. Though she had to concede that that kind of thing would have probably been a bitch to clean without magic.

 

Grabbing another towel off the rack, she wrapped it around “her” body and made her way back into the main area of her hotel room, with only a brief pause to pick up Sora’s underwear again. Continuing on her way, Sarah pulled the shower room door closed with “her” right arm, made a stop beside the front door to drop Sora’s previously-worn underwear off in the basket whose purpose she was starting to suspect she already knew, and then turned to head back toward the blue-sheeted bed that she’d spent her first night here in.

 

She finished drying off on her way there, and so Sarah put aside the towel she’d been wearing and dove into the backpack she’d packed for this trip. She didn’t quite remember just what the first world – aside from Traverse Town, of course – was that Sora’s post-Destiny Islands trio had traveled to, so she left aside specialized clothes she’d packed. She wore a pair of shorts rather than either of the two pairs of long pants she’d managed to take along on this particular journey, since happily enough it seemed like Traverse Town had a rather mild climate, and added a short-sleeved shirt as well.

 

When she’d finished getting dressed for the day, reasonably sure that she was prepared for what was coming, Sarah turned to look over at Kuromaru. The Shadow had pressed itself against “her” right thigh after she had finished pulling up Sora’s shorts, and now seemed perfectly content to stay there.

 

“All right, boy,” she said, turning to lay “her” right hand atop Kuromaru’s head. “It’d probably be best if you stayed back here,” she said, opting not to explain her reasoning, since she honestly doubted that she Shadow could understand much of what she was saying. “ _Stay_ , Kuromaru,” she said, pressing down on the Shadow’s head to emphasize her command.

 

When she lifted “her” hand away, Kuromaru tilted its head in what seemed to be a gesture of confusion – lending further credence to the idea that the Shadow barely understood verbal communication – but it seemed to understand what she was getting at, since it stayed on top of her bed even as Sarah herself began to leave the room.

 

“Good boy,” she said, over “her” right shoulder even as she made her way to the door.

 

Closing her room’s door behind her, Sarah cordially returned the greeting that Yuffie called out to her as the two of them caught sight of each other in the corridor.

 

“Good luck with your meeting this morning!”

 

“Thanks!” she called back. “You guys enjoy your breakfast.”

 

Yuffie laughed lightly. “We will!”

 

Turning and making her way over to the closed doors of the First District, Sarah began singing softly; almost under her breath. She didn’t know if any of the people present here actually _spoke_ Japanese – rather than just having their voices dubbed in that language when the first Kingdom Hearts game had initially come out – but she didn’t think that any of them would object to the song “Yakusoku wa Iranai” in any case. Still, Sarah couldn’t help smiling a bit as she continued on; at least there wasn’t anyone around that she had to keep the “Sora” act up for.

 

Crossing the main square of the First District, after a quick hop to bypass all of those stairs, Sarah made her way up to the door of Scrooge’s establishment. Said door was opened for her even before she could start to reach out for it, which prompted Sarah to smile slightly as the very drake – she’d feel kind of weird referring to an anthropomorphic duck as a man, even if only in her own head; she always _did_ strive to be precise in her descriptions – who she had come to meet stood in the door smiling right back at her.

 

“Welcome, welcome,” Scrooge said, stepping gracefully aside even as he gestured her forward. “Do come in. I’ve taken the liberty of having breakfast prepared for the two of us.” He turned, directing her attention to a two-person table that had been neatly set out with two plates of pancakes, a bowl each of sausage-links, a generous portion of what looked to be hashed browns for the two of them, a large pitcher of what she took a moment to hope was milk, and an only slightly smaller container of what she could clearly see was maple – or at least something that she _hoped_ was maple – syrup. “I thought that the two of us might share a meal, before we begin discussing business,” he said, even though his intent had been clear to anyone who paid even a modicum of attention to what was going on around them.

 

To be fair, though, some people didn’t.

 

“Thanks, this is really generous of you,” she said, allowing herself to be settled down in the chair opposite Scrooge himself.

 

He was definitely a canny one; an offer of food and hospitality would naturally make those he was attempting to open business negotiations with far more inclined to think kindly of him, and perhaps to grant concessions they would have been unwilling to before. _Well-played indeed, my dear sir,_ she allowed, though she didn’t say any such thing. One of the unspoken rules of the negotiation table was that you didn’t let on that you knew the tricks of the trade.

 

So, as she savored the food that had been set out before her, Sarah only allowed herself the occasional, small smile. Clearly, Scrooge knew just what he was doing when embarking on negotiations the way he intended to do; time would tell if he’d be a good business partner, but given what she was seeing here and now, Sarah was fully willing to give the drake a chance.

 

Finishing her meal, with a large swallow of milk to wash it all down, Sarah wiped “her” hands and mouth, then settled back into her chair.

 

“That was a wonderful spread,” she said, both since it was and because it was particularly important to demonstrate good manners when you were at the negotiation table. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

 

“Of course, my boy,” Scrooge said, smiling cordially. “Now, I’ve got the contract all written up,” he said, removing a rolled up sheet of parchment from a black, wooden tube. “If you want to look it over.”

 

“Of course,” she said, reaching out to take the rolled parchment as it was handed over to her.

 

Happily enough, the contract itself wasn’t written in some obscure dialect of legalese, and it did indeed entitle her to half of the profits from every root beer float sold. The only issue was that, since she was going to be signing a legally-binding contract, she was going to need to use her legal name. Still, there _could_ , possibly, be a way around that.

 

“Would it be all right if a used my first two initials for this?”

 

Scrooge stroked his feathered chin. “I suppose that would be all right, so long as you used your proper surname,” the behatted drake said, after a few moments’ consideration.

 

“Thank you,” she said, and quickly signed her name on the indicated line.

 

She wasn’t even going to bother _trying_ to forge Sora’s handwriting, both since no one here had seen it, and since in this case it would have been extremely counterproductive.

 

“Rather fine penmanship you have there, Sora my lad.”

 

“I do my best,” she said, smiling as she handed the fountain pen he’d given over back to him. “Thanks for noticing.”

 

He chuckled. “Of course.” Scrooge paused a moment, clearly scrutinizing the signature on the contract in front of him. “What does the L stand for?”

 

“Leeahn,” she answered, the same as she’d done before, and would probably end up doing again for anyone else who showed that particular curiosity.

 

As long as they weren’t faeries; she was too well-versed in lore and mythology to ever give her full name to a faery, even _with_ an assurance of good behavior.

 

“Well then, Sora Leeahn Williams, it has been a distinct pleasure doing business with you.”

 

“Likewise, Scrooge McDuck,” she said, firmly shaking the drake’s hand as he offered it to her. Topping off her glass of milk for what would be the last time before she left, Sarah raised it. “To a lucrative partnership.”

 

“Of course,” Scrooge said, laughter in his tone as the two of them tapped glasses.

 

When she had finished the last of her milk and was feeling pleasantly full, she bade Scrooge a fond farewell and made her way back out into the main square of the first district. Yawning briefly as she continued on her way back up the stairs and to the door that would take her back into the Second District, Sarah continued to sing softly under her breath. She didn’t particularly want to bother anyone, but she was really starting to miss her iPod in this whole mess. As she pushed open the doors themselves, effort forcing a bit more air from “her” lungs and hence making her song a bit louder for those few moments, Sarah smiled briefly. Some things just didn’t change from world to world; or even between universes, come to think of it.

 

Feeling something brush softly against “her” right calf, Sarah looked down to see Kuromaru staring up at her with those wide, lidless yellow eyes of its.

 

“Well, at least you stayed back here in Second District,” she said, patting the Shadow’s head as it stretched up to meet her.

 

Kuromaru seemed particularly excited to see her right here and now, fluttering its little hand-claws as the two of them continued on their way back toward her current hotel room. Only, when she looked closer, Sarah found that Kuromaru’s “fluttering” was less random, excited motions and more-

 

 **You-know-sign-language-now?** She signed back, biting “her” lower lip even as she kept the motions of “her” hands slow and deliberate.

 

American Sign Language wasn’t something that any of the people she was going to encounter would be remotely likely to know about, particularly considering when and where it had been invented, and how long it took to learn it.

 

**Please-sing-I-like-it.**

 

And yet here Kuromaru was, its signs a bit rushed, but more than clear to someone who understood the language.

 

**How-do-you-know-this?**

**You-know.**

 

She narrowed “her” eyes slightly; with another human, she’d have called that kind of thing impossible without telepathy, and then she would have given said telepath a stern lecture on privacy and the importance thereof. However, considering the nature of the Heartless and all-

 

**You-learned-from-me?**

**I-did-please-sing.**

 

She chuckled. “Very well, Kuromaru.”

 

There was no one else in the Second District’s central courtyard, no one to hear her singing Belinda Carlisle’s “Circle in the Sand” to the clear delight of the Shadow walking beside her, but Sarah briefly amused herself considering their probable reactions. When she and Kuromaru made it back to her hotel room, Sarah sat down on the freshly-made bed – room service was clearly either still operating or had been reinstated when people started staying here once again – and was completely unsurprised when Kuromaru jumped right into “her” lap.

 

Once she’d finished the last few verses, Kuromaru turned those big, yellow eyes on her once again, and Sarah laughed and began to sing Shakira’s “Whenever, wherever.” Kuromaru’s movements suggested that the Shadow was hearing more than just her singing, and for a few moments she was reminded of Kairi back on Destiny Islands. Still, there would be ample time to solve that particular mystery later; she’d see to it herself if necessary. The sound of her door opening prompted Sarah to open “her” eyes once again, and she nearly broke up laughing in amusement as Squall palmed his face once again.

 

Yuffie, on the other hand, had nothing holding her back, and so _did_ burst out laughing; though whether at Squall’s antics or at Kuromaru the dancing Heartless Sarah wasn’t entirely sure. Whatever its ultimate cause, Yuffie’s amusement was fairly short-lived, leading the ninja to briefly clear her throat as Sarah and Squall both turned to look her way.

 

“Well, since we’re all here now,” she said, still with that amused smile on her face. “Why don’t we go see Merlin, so we can get this all cleared up, and Sora can start learning magic?”

 

“I think that would be best,” Squall said, his eyes narrowing slightly as she hopped up off the bed and Kuromaru fell into step by “her” right side.

 


End file.
